Category: News of the Weird

A new animal to be afraid of? When sea lions attack…

Interesting article in The Guardian:

Experience: I was nearly drowned by a sea lion

What Trish hadn’t seen was that at the moment she said “Smile!” a sea lion had leapt about 7ft out of the water to get the fish, and grabbed my left hand in the process. Sea lions have canine teeth, just like a dog. It dragged me headfirst into the water. I’d actually seen it out of the corner of my eye a split second before I felt the pain. It was big and had such strength. It pulled me straight down to the bottom of the bay, about 25-30ft.
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Sea lions are so agile. I don’t buy the idea that it accidentally got my hand; I think it was angry and territorial. The supply of fish here is dwindling and their numbers are increasing – there’s not enough food for them all.

Quite a bit more there. Go read it, amazing survival and interesting incident for an animal many of us think of as “cute.”

Pity Colbert isn’t back on the air yet. I’d love to see his take on it.

And on a lighter note…

Submitted without comment:
LA porn production plummets in wake of mandatory condom law

Number of permits issued for adult films plunges as industry says producers have moved to Las Vegas and eastern Europe

Pornography production in Los Angeles appears to have plunged in the wake of a law which compels performers to use condoms.

The number of permits issued for adult films fell 90% last year to just 40 permits compared with 2012, when the law was introduced, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.

“We’ve seen a dramatic drop in permits,” Paul Audley, president of FilmLA, told the paper. “It is a cause for concern that people who are manning the cameras, lights and other things on those sets are not working anymore.”

Another gem from lower in the article:

Most porn production takes place without permits – a film can be shot in a few days in a private house – so it was unclear to what extent the 90% fall in permits represented a wider flight.

Some stories just ask “share me here”

US student is rescued from giant vagina sculpture in Germany

On Friday afternoon, a young American in Tübingen had to be rescued by 22 firefighters after getting trapped inside a giant sculpture of a vagina. The Chacán-Pi (Making Love) artwork by the Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara has been outside Tübingen University’s institute for microbiology and virology since 2001 and had previously mainly attracted juvenile sniggers rather than adventurous explorers.

The comments on the Guardian’s site are, as one might expect, brilliant.

Canada to Ban Foreign Strippers

via FlyerTalk OMNI:
Canada Stripping Visas for Foreign Strippers

What’s this debate over Canada’s move to ban foreign strippers, escorts and massage-parlor workers really about? On one side, you have the Adult Entertainment Association, which is upset that the government is stripping away a pool of potential moneymaking workers, whereas on the other side, you have the government, which is saying that cutting back on human trafficking and exploitation is at the heart of the decision.

The Conservative Party government’s Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, announced that starting next month, Canada will no longer renew visas for foreigners working as strippers. Already the government has cut back on how many new visas it grants, down to just 12 in 2011. But it had been continuing to renew previous visas. Not anymore.

“‘Depraved’ sex acts by penguins shocked polar explorer”

‘Depraved’ sex acts by penguins shocked polar explorer

9 June 2012 Last updated at 20:36 ET
By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service
Accounts of unusual sexual activities among penguins, observed a century ago by a member of Captain Scott’s polar team, are finally being made public.

Details, including “sexual coercion”, recorded by George Murray Levick were considered so shocking that they were removed from official accounts.

However, scientists now understand the biological reasons behind the acts that Dr Levick considered “depraved”.

The Natural History Museum has published his unedited papers.

Mr Levick, an avid biologist, was the medical officer on Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910. He was a pioneer in the study of penguins and was the first person to stay for an entire breeding season with a colony on Cape Adare.

Who knew? (Or, as someone on Flyertalk put it “Fifty shades of penguin?”

That’s one hung duck (slightly NSFW.)

North American scientists have discovered the longest bird penis ever – a 42.5cm organ belonging to a duck.
Dr Kevin McCracken of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and colleagues, report in this week’s Nature that they have found a specimen of the Argentine lake duck (Oxyura vittata) that has a penis as long as its body – nearly half a metre long.

Very old news, but too funny not to share.

Porpoises rescue Dick Van Dyke

Since it’s been a while since I posted a good “News of the Weird” link…

Porpoises rescue Dick Van Dyke

On screen, Dick Van Dyke has been rescued from untimely death by flying cars and magical nannies. Off screen, the veteran star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had to rely on the help of a pod of porpoises after apparently dozing off aboard his surfboard. “I’m not kidding,” he said afterwards.

{Checks if it’s April 1}
{Nope}

Sparing my Facebook friends, it goes here instead.

(via AmericaBlog)

Rip Torn: Bank Robber???

Actor Rip Torn charged with breaking into Conn. bank while drunk and carrying a loaded gun

SALISBURY, Conn. (AP) — Actor Elmore “Rip” Torn has been charged with breaking into a Connecticut bank and carrying a loaded handgun while intoxicated.

State police say the 78-year-old Salisbury resident was arrested Friday night after police found him inside the Litchfield Bancorp with a loaded revolver.

The “Men in Black” actor has been taken into custody and booked on charges including burglary and possession of firearm without a permit. He is being held on $100,000 bond and is scheduled for a Monday appearance in Bantam Superior Court.

Forget men in black, his SF great role was Centauri in The Last Starfighter.

Hitchin’ a ride.

Crab videotaped riding giant jellyfish

Exactly what it says. Requires a video player plugin, not sure which but one I had in any event. Animals are weird…

It’s a good day for random weird stuff:
Missing in Mexico: Truck with 5,000 condoms, 800 HIV tests and a giant inflatable prophylactic

MEXICO CITY (AP) _ Missing in Mexico: One truck carrying 5,000 condoms, 800 HIV tests and a 23-foot (7 meter) inflatable prophylactic.

The coordinator of an HIV/AIDS awareness tour, Polo Gomez, said Wednesday that the “Condomovil” was parked in front of a friend’s house in Mexico City when it disappeared Sunday evening. He believes the truck was stolen, but he doesn’t know why. Police are still investigating.

The truck should be easy to spot. It features painted images of a peeled banana, the exposed part shaped like a condom, and a shirtless man saying: “I protect myself. Do you?”

“A little off the top,” it wasn’t.

Something doesn’t smell right if this took from last Oct to today for the lawsuit to be filed, but…
(via Flyertalk)
Doctor accused of amputating man’s genitals against wishes

A lawsuit accuses a Frankfort doctor of amputating a man’s penis without his consent, according to a newspaper.

Must-see image: Frizza vending machine

The End Is Near

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Tombstone Deep Dish Pizza, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with vending machine pizza, and with high-fructose corn syrup, and with trans-fatty acids, and with all the beasts of the earth.

Must go look. It’s horrific. Frozen pizza vending machine. Ugh.