FT266

A BIT LATE
In May 2010, the Iowa Court of Appeals ordered the family of Orville Richardson, 81, who died in February 2009, to exhume his body so that his head could be cut off and frozen. Richardson had signed a contract with Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Arizona, to have his head placed in cryogenic suspension, but his siblings had buried him instead. After 14 months, his head would be a tad degraded, one presumes. [AP] 14 May 2010.

PHANTOM 'ROOS
Over the last seven years, 30 people commuting to work in the Mayam mountain district of Osaki, a community of 441 households about 350km north of Tokyo, Japan, have reported seeing "kangeroo-like animals", including three reports between December 2009 and March 2010, when the mountainous area was often covered in snow. Television crews and newspapers set up hidden cameras, but have failed to photograph any marsupials. [AFP] 8 Mar 2010.

DOOR HANDLE NEWS
A 24-year-old woman was cut free by firefighters after impaling her breast on a door handle at her home in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. A week later, Ryan Phillip Sewell, 19, was charged wirth indecent exposure after he was seen to rub his genitals on car door handles in a Maryland car park. Sun, D. Telegraph, 13 May; MX News (Sydney), 19 May 2010.

BLOODY MIRACLE
Thousands of pilgrims have flocked to a small church in Yerba Buena, Argentina, after reports of 'blood' running from Christ's crown of thorns in a mural. Samples of the red liquid have been sent for tests. Local priest Fr Jorge Gandur said that he "didn't want to create false expectations". Sun. 16 June 2010.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
Two men, one dressed as Snoopy and armed with a water pistol, tried to break into Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight. When that failed, they threw concrete blocks at prison officers' cars. They were trying to free a family member, who was not even at Albany at the time. They were detained under the Mental Health Act. Sunday Times, 16 May 2010.

PIGEON ACCUSED
A white pigeon that landed in the Indian state of Punjab, close to the border with Pakistan, was taken to a police station 40km from the capital Amritsar, where it was held under armed guard and accused of spying. It had a ring around its foot and a Pakistani telephone number and address stamped on its body in red ink. It was suspected of having brought a message, although none was found. Press Trust of India, via NY Post, 28 May 2010

COSTLY ERROR
A motorist who reported his car stolen found it six months later - just where he's left it in the huge car park at Aachen Hospital in germany. It had clocked up more than £500 in parking fees, which the hapless driver was obliged to pay. Metro, 11 May 2010

DAMNED DOLLARS
Nancy Marks, who runs a psychic reading business in Lafayette, Colerado, was arrested for fraud after telling clients that malicious spirits were haunting their bank accounts and hat she would take the evil assets off their hands. "For each evil spirit that was supposedly around me," a client called Linda told police, "she told me a certain number of thousands of dollars that I needed to bring to her... she told me if I didn't give her more and more money, that something terrible would befall my mother." io9, 19 May 2010

FROGS CLOSE ROAD
Millions of frogs forced the closure of a key highway in northern Greece for two hours on 26 May 2010, after three car drivers skidded off the road near the town of Langadas, some 19km east of Thessaloniki. Traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou said the amphibians probably left a nearby lake to look for food. [AP] 26 May 2010

3D HAZARD
US military man Erick Johnson came home from a stint in Iraq to find his wife Jennifer was pregnant. She claimed this had happened because she watched a 3D pornographic film. The Johnsons are white, but the baby turned out to be black. jennifer explained that this was because she had been ogling a black porn star. The husband actually accepted her explanation. "With today's technology," he said, "anything is possible." TechEye, 7 May 2010.

ORDER RESTORED
ETA terrorist Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, 54, fled Northern Ireland before an appeal challenging extradition to Spain. Sun, 30 April 2010.

ROUND (AND ROUND) TRIP
A nautical novice thought he was sailing round the British coast, from Gillingham to Southampton, but ended up circling a small island off Kent. He was rescued by lifeboat after he ran out of fuel off the Isle of Sheppey, whose shore he had been hugging all day and night. His principle was to keep the land on his right, but he didn't realise Sheppey was an island. Metro, Sun, 28 April 2010.

SEVERED EAR
In March 2009, two thugs broke into the house of David Fullard in Brough, East Yorkshire, and threatened to rape his girlfriend and kill his sons. Mr Fullard grabbed a Samurai sword and cut off the left ear of one of the intruders, who bore the apt name Michael Severs. Mr Fullard was acquitted of unlawful wounding in November. Sun, 11 Feb 2010.

THOU SHALT NOT
The Shabaab movement, which controls most of southern and central Somalia, embraces the Wanabi ideology and has issued decrees banning films, plays, dancing at weddings, football matches and all forms of music, including mobile phone ring tones. Also brassieres: if a woman's breasts look too firm, they are made to take off their tops and jiggle to prove the perkiness is natural. NY Post, 18 October; Independent, 28 Oct 2009.

COMMUNAL BEREAVEMENT
Following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, thousands of US women expecting baby boys miscarried. The foetal death rate for males spiked that month, and "significantly fewer boys than expected" were born in the following months, according to a study led by Prof. Tim Bruckner of the University of California, Irvine. Metro, 25 May 2010.

EQUINE SOLIDARITY
When a group of youths in Telford, Shropshire, fired two crossbow bolts into a bay mare called Zeta, four other horses spent three hours taking turns to lick the wound clean. Owner Jo Young said this had saved Zeta's life, as it prevented the wound from becoming infected and helped stem the blood flow. One bolt bounced off the mare's rib while another lodged an inch from her lung. D. Express, 19 May 2010.

BODY SHOP
Gunther van Hagens, famous for his 'Bodyworks' exhibitions [FT146:7, 167:6), has launched a mail-order service for his 'Plastinarium' (factory and museum) in the German town of Guben, offering for sale such curios as a smoker's lung (£2,960), a slice of a human hand (£152), or a cross-section of giraffe neck (price unstated). D. Mail, 29 May; Guardian, 1 June 2010.