Ever had someone ask to move in with you for awhile with the promise, "You won't even know I'm there"? Well, there is a guy in Japan with a different perspective on that sort of thing. Japan woman lived in man's closet
A woman has been arrested in Japan for sneaking into a man's house and living in his closet without him knowing.
Police found 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa living in a small storage space in the house in the southern city of Fukuoka.
The house belonged to a 57-year-old man, who had become suspicious after food disappeared from his fridge.
So he installed a surveillance system, which filmed the woman as she walked around in his absence.
"She told police that she had nowhere to live," the French news agency AFP quoted a local police spokesman as saying.
"She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time."
For a learner pilot, it is embarrassing enough that you have brought your plane in to land on top of another aircraft that was on the runway.
But when that other plane belongs to your next-door neighbour, the situation reaches a whole new level of humiliation.
Despite the odds, that is exactly what happened at Roanoke airport near Dallas in Texas when one rookie pilot attempted to touch down.
A perfect three-point landing. Wrong three points, however. Nobody was hurt in the incident, so by one old definition, this was a good landing. I see a great future for the student pilot, however. In modern art!
Lingerie maker Triumph International Japan Ltd unveiled its environmentally friendly, and green colored, "Solar Power Bra" on Wednesday in Tokyo which features a solar panel worn around the stomach.
The panel requires light to generate electricity and the concept bra will not be in stores anytime soon, said Triumph spokeswoman Yoshiko Masuda, as "people usually can not go outside without wearing clothes over it."
But it does send the message of how lingerie could possibly save the planet, Masuda said, adding that the bra should not be washed or sunned on a rainy day to avoid damaging it.
Well, strictly speaking, it really isn't pointless at all. It is a way for the maker to get free publicity. Nothing more.
From the folks who brought you "Name That Sausage" comes the next great craze "Find That Schiller!"
Who is buried in Friedrich Schiller's tomb? Several people, apparently, but none of them the famous poet and playwright, according to new research.
After two years of painstaking DNA research, experts have determined that none of the remains billed as those of Schiller belong to the German writer, who died in Weimar in 1805, Germany's MDR television reported. The study, dubbed the Friedrich-Schiller Code, was undertaken by the television station, the Foundation of Weimar Classics and an international team of scientists.
"Two years ago I was certain that we would prove that it was him; now we have proved the opposite," said foundation president Hellmut Seemann, whose organization oversees the Schiller archives and exhibitions.
What's next you wonder? Why, "Where's (Ralph) Waldo (Emerson)" of course.
A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a Darth Vader impersonator who allegedly attacked two Star Wars fans in their own back garden.
Arwel Wynne Jones, who was dressed in a black bin liner and shiny black helmet, is accused of assaulting Barney and Michael Jones while they were being interviewed for a TV documentary about their love of the films.
Barney Jones (or, as he styles himself for his priestly duties, Jonba Hehol) is one of the founders of the British Jedi Church - which I have posted about before. To update my conclusion about the last post, not only is said Jedi priest seriously in need of a life, it would appear he could also use a good suit of full plate armor.
What does that Beatles lyric have to do with this rather odd story from Britain? Nothing whatsoever other than location, but it came to mind when I read about the battling brothers and a Shepherd's pie.
After a day spent drinking, Michael Garvin cooked his brother John the traditional English dish for dinner, expecting a grateful response.
John, however, voiced his disquiet that the pie was not topped with a layer of sliced tomatoes.
His brother, a chef, claimed a layer of tomatoes was not the appropriate way to finish off a shepherd’s pie, and responded by hitting him over the head with a shovel.
As the argument got out of control, John threatened to petrol bomb his brother’s flat and was arrested.
Apparently, he wanted the pie well done. Forget the argument over a layer of tomatoes, however. The real important thing is whether the shepherd was fresh, isn't it?
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.
Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.
Police also arrested 14 of the alleged victims before they could lynch the purported penis purloiners. From here on, we will collectively refer to all of the alleged victims of the organ snatching as "Ken".
The Daily Mail reports that at long last there is a real reason for Google Earth. Oh, sure, there's the occasional hovercar sighting. Not to mention the spotting of alien invaders, but this is serious! You can now play "Where's Waldo" (or "Where's Wally" in Britain) using Google Earth.
For years, he has challenged enterprising schoolchildren everywhere to spot him among ancient Aztec kingdoms and medieval battlefields.
But now Wally has set his fans a new goal - to find him over the internet.
Canadian artist Melanie Coles has brought her favourite childhood game firmly into the 21st Century by painting a 55ft Wally - complete with red-and-white-striped jumper, glasses and woollen hat - on to a city centre roof that can only be seen by Google Earth satellites.
There is now a flurry of interest among internet users to see who can be the first to spot this Web 2.0 Wally.
But competition is likely to be tough. Not only will Wally hunters have to locate his rooftop perch, but they will also have to wait for Google's imaging equipment to pick it up.
Although Google Earth pictures can be up to three years old, the company does not reveal when it plans to update its images.
Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but the Google Earth image that shows my house is considerably older than three years old. The last I looked, it still did not show the shed we installed right after we moved in to the house more than seven years ago. The tree the shed sits next to shows clearly, but no shed. So it could be a long wait for Waldo - or Wally.
SEDALIA, Mo. — Prosecutors are not expected to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while he was trying to install a satellite TV system in their home.
Henry County investigators ruled that Patsy Long's March 22 death was accidental. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired his .22 caliber pistol from inside their Deepwater home after he couldn't punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.
The sheriff's office said the 34-year-old woman was hit in the chest by the second of two shots.
Henry County Prosecuting Attorney Richard Shields said his office does not expect to press charges.
It's tragic, but I guess it could have been worse. He could have had a stick of dynamite in the house.
The Johnson County (Iowa) Board of Supervisors has withdrawn its permission for self-described ghost hunters to search a former mental asylum.
Board members last month approved an investigation of the buildings, but decided to vote it down in response to negative feedback, said Board Chairman Rod Sullivan.
He said the board initially did not oppose a request from the Johnson County Historical Society to have a paranormal team conduct a free investigation at the site, which is now a private residential care facility for the mentally ill called Chatham Oaks.
Gee, what negative response could they possibly have gotten? Sadly, it means sales of this item will be flat in Johnson county, for now at least.
An Australian businessman is building a full-sized replica of Stonehenge in Australia. Ross Smith has had a team of quarry workers cutting replica stones for the past five months and plans to have the whole thing built by December 21 of this year - the summer solstice down under.
"I'm doing it because I can," said Ross Smith, the former owner of a successful microbrewery business who plans to build the monument on his property in Western Australia. "Nowhere in the world has a complete Stonehenge been built."
The $1.26 million project, to be called The Henge, will include 101 granite stones arranged in an inner and outer circle, a central altar, and will span 110 feet.
"I've studied plans of the original and that's what The Henge will look like," Smith said.
Unlike the original Stonehenge, guests will be encouraged to touch and play around the new monument, which will also have an interpretive center and a children's playground.
Smith called The Henge "a business venture." An entry fee will be charged and it will be hired out for weddings and other events.
Actually, I'm surprised nobody has done this before. (One waits breathlessly for the howls of outrage from fake druids over the fake Stonehenge.) Smith is hoping for 200,000 to 300,000 visitors annually. Hmmm. Maybe we should get one of these for the garden here at the Crabitat. Nah - too much to mow around.
Staffers at a Fort Wayne, Indiana law office panicked when they found a suspicious box containing an unknown object and called police. After much deliberation, the bomb squad decided to detonate the gift. The turnip did not detonate, however.
Officers then called the city's bomb unit, which brought in a robot to carry the package outside to a parking lot. X-rays showed no signs of an explosive, but bomb technicians decided to detonate the package with a water cannon just to be safe, police spokesman Michael Joyner said.
After that, they opened the box and found the turnip, wrapped in lettuce-green tissue paper inside a sandwich bag.
Turnips only cause detonations when consumed. Or that's the excuse Uncle Guido likes to use, at any rate. Meanwhile, in Corpus Chisti, Texas, the pineapple did detonate.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The police department was briefly evacuated after a woman decided she should bring in a hand grenade she found.
The unidentified woman handed it to an officer Thursday after finding it while cleaning out a relative's belongings. The officer immediately took it outside the building and police cleared the building until the bomb squad took it away and detonated it about an hour later.
The bomb squad supervisor used highly technical jargon to describe the result of his team's efforts:
We can laugh about this one since nobody was hurt. A nursing home employee in Auburn, Washington made an emergency call to the local fire department. It seems the toilets were exploding with steam.
AUBURN, Wash. - An employee of an Auburn nursing home called firefighters for help on Tuesday because the toilets were exploding with steam. The fire department said there was a boiler malfunction at Regency Auburn Rehabilitation Center that caused a minor explosion.
The blast set off the sprinkler system and flooded the floors of the three-story building.
The Valley Regional Fire Authority said no one was hurt, but water damaged electrical systems and the kitchen. So, 72 occupants had to be temporarily moved to five other rehabilitation facilities using ambulances, buses and vans.
Well, finally a true exploding toilet story! One wonders how the steam managed to get into the sanitary lines. (Possibly a blowdown line?) One thing is for sure, we have no interest in getting one of these for home. Third degree bidets sound really painful.
The inhabitants of Anchorage, Alaska appear to have entirely too much time on their hands. They've taken to playing with their food in a big way. But the reindeer won the first annual Running of the Reindeer handily.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - From sausages to stews, reindeer are usually a main dish in Alaska.
But the antlered animals were the main event at Anchorage's first annual running of the reindeer.
A cheering crowd of hundreds lined snow-packed Fourth Avenue Sunday to watch what was touted as Alaska's version of Spain's famed running of the bulls.
"Normally we just eat them," said Mark Berg, a spectator who has lived in Alaska since 1967. "I just made some jambalaya the other day out of reindeer sausage. I've eaten more of their cousins than they want to know."
Seven little reindeer, looking a bit bewildered, stood next to their handlers as a crowd of roughly 1,000 costumed runners chatted excitedly at the start.
We here at Blue Crab Boulevard are pretty sure that Pamplona has nothing to worry about. The costumed runners were apparently slowed down by their carrot and lichen attire, allowing the reindeer to win the race outright. Either that or the sight of giant abulatory plant life gave the reindeer's hooves wings.
Weird Stuff | Rich Horton Friday, 30 May , 2008 | 
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