Karl's Weird News

Contestants turn torturers in French TV experiment

Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy — then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead.

“The Game of Death” has all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess urging the players on under gaudy studio lights.

But the contestants did not know they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths, and which has prompted comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

“We were amazed to find that 81 percent of the participants obeyed” the sadistic orders of the television presenter, said Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary for the state-owned France 2 channel which airs Wednesday.

“They are not equipped to disobey,” he added. “They don’t want to do it, they try to convince the authority figure that they should stop, but they don’t manage to,” he told AFP.

Human sacrifice on the increase:

THE number of people killed in human sacrifice is on the rise.

According to a report obtained from the Police, the number of people killed in human sacrifice increased from three in 2007 to 25 in 2008 and 29 in 2009.

In addition, a total of 123 people were still missing by the end of 2009, the majority of them, or 90, were children. Most of them are suspected to having become victims of human sacrifice.

To date, 125 suspects have been arrested and 54 were taken to court. They were charged with criminal offences such as murder, abductions, kidnap, causing harm and attempting to sell children. However, nobody has been convicted so far.

Altogether 1,213 people went missing in the course of last year but the majority of them were traced.

Kampala district emerged as the most dangerous place, with 956 people gone missing for at least a few days during 2009. This was followed by Wakiso district with 98 missing people, Mityana with 19 and Kayunga with 16 missing people. Masaka, Mukono and Jinja each had 14 cases.

Of the 29 confirmed ritual murders last year, three were in Kampala while Jinja, Mukono and Mityana each had two.

Our Bad: Germany Still Looking for Freedom from David Hasselhoff:

For years, the world has mocked Germany for its love affair with David Hasselhoff. And, for years, Germans have been hoping that the world would forgive and forget. But now that MTV has invited “the Hoff” to perform in Berlin, just like he did 20 years ago when the Berlin Wall came down, their hopes have been dashed.

The Germans have some fairly devastating national trauma to deal with: in addition to the obvious, there were several decades of living in a country divided in half, being stuck in the middle of the Cold War, the non-sale of Opel this week, the controversial Wembley goal of the 1966 World Cup. And then, of course, there’s David Hasselhoff.

Countless embarrassing conversations have started like this: “Hasselhoff is still a star in your country, isn’t he?” It’s not meant as a compliment. The cause of all this, of course, is one of Hasselhoff’s songs, “I’ve Been Looking For Freedom,” which dominated the charts during the period of German reunification. In the 20 years since then, Germany has had plenty of pop stars; bands like the trance-dancing trio Scooter and heavy- metal rockers Rammstein are well known in the country.

But, outside of Germany, everyone still thinks Hasselhoff is Germany’s biggest star. The international success of pop-rockers Tokio Hotel has gone a little way toward improving the situation. But now, thanks to MTV, the legend will live on. On Thursday evening, Hasselhoff will be onstage in Berlin for the Europe Music Awards.

There’s a history to all this: On New Year’s Eve 1989, Hasselhoff took to the stage in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to sing his hit “I’ve Been Looking For Freedom” to an already enthusiastic crowd. Amateur video footage of his performance still makes for some of the most horrid viewing that YouTube has to offer.

Should Hasselhoff take the stage at the music awards with a bit more irony, he might go a long way toward making up for past misdeeds — such as the jacket bedecked with mini-light bulbs and the piano-keyboard scarf he was wearing in 1989. He might even help change the world’s opinion on Germany’s well-documented humor deficit.

Still, in light of that ghastly video that did the rounds of YouTube which showed Hasselhoff trying to eat a hamburger in a highly inebriated state, perhaps his honor actually needs defending rather than more mocking. Maybe we should all try and see it from the perspective of “the Hoff.” After all, he cannot shoulder all the blame for the destruction of one country’s reputation. Who knows, maybe Germany’s volatile love for his pop songs ruined his life. If that’s the case, it’s probably better to talk about collective blame. The punishment will be meted out onstage in Berlin on Thursday evening.

Millions worldwide would like to switch countries: study:

Some 700 million people worldwide, or more than all the adults of North and South America combined, think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and want to permanently move to another country, a poll showed Tuesday.

Residents of sub-Saharan African countries were the most likely to want to move abroad permanently, the polls conducted in 135 countries between 2007 and this year by Gallup showed.

On average, 38 percent of the adult population in sub-Saharan Africa, or around 165 million people, said they would up stakes and head for another country if they had the chance.

The most popular destination was the United States, where nearly a quarter of the 700 million — around 165 million people — said they would like to settle.

In joint second were Britain, Canada and France, each being named as the preferred destination of around 45 million people.

Hopeful dad hasn’t washed for 35 years

AN Indian man who fathered seven daughters has not washed for 35 years in an apparent attempt to ensure his next child is a boy, newspapers report.

Kailash “Kalau” Singh replaces bathing and brushing his teeth with a “fire bath” every evening when he stands on one leg beside a bonfire, smokes marijuana and says prayers to Lord Shiva, according to the Hindustan Times.

“It’s just like using water to take a bath,” Kalau was reported as saying. “A fire bath helps kill germs and infection in the body.”

Kalau, 63, from a village outside the holy city of Varanasi, outraged his family by refusing to take a ritual dip in the river Ganges even after his brother died five years ago.

Naked Swiss hikers must cover up:

The tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden has voted to prohibit the phenomenon of naked hiking. Anyone found wandering the Alps wearing nothing but a sturdy pair of hiking boots will now be fined. Appenzell is considered one of the most conservative regions of Switzerland; it gave women the vote only in 1990. Locals have been outraged by an apparent upsurge in hikers who think the best way to appreciate the mountains is with their clothes off.

Hat tip to Valentina!

South Africa has a new President but who will be first among his ladies?

When Jacob Zuma fulfils a lifelong dream and assumes the presidency of South Africa next month his first major policy headache is going to be which of his current crop of wives and girlfriends should become First Lady.

Mr Zuma is a polygamist who has had as many as four wives at one time. He currently has two after one committed suicide in 2000 and another one – Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the South African Foreign Minister – divorced him in 1998. She remains a trusted aide.

He recently paid lobolo (a Zulu dowry) for two other women. One is a long-time girlfriend. The other is Sebentile Dlamini, a Swazi princess, whom he apparently is not too keen on, but he does not want to upset the neighbouring kingdom of Swaziland. Speculation has been growing that he may marry one or both of them soon.

Gambians ‘taken by witch doctors’:

Up to 1,000 Gambian villagers have been abducted by “witch doctors” to secret detention centres and forced to drink potions, a human rights group says.

 Amnesty International said some forced to drink the concoctions developed kidney problems, and two had died.

Officials in the police, army and the president’s personal protection guard had accompanied the “witch doctors” in the bizarre roundup, said witnesses.

Gambia’s government was unavailable to comment on the claims.

Toddler married to dog in India to ‘ward off tiger’

Members of an Indian tribe have married off a toddler to a female dog in eastern India in a bid to prevent his predicted death at the hands of a tiger.

The ceremony at a Hindu temple in Orissa state’s Jajpur district was conducted with all the rituals observed at traditional weddings, including a dowry for the bride – the village bitch.

The dog sported two silver rings and a silver chain, the UNI news agency reported.

Parents of the groom, one-and-a-half year old Sangula, were advised to arrange the marriage when they noticed a tooth growing from their infant son’s upper gum – considered a bad omen.

Eight beheaded after India wedding dispute

Eight members of a man’s poverty-ridden family were shot and beheaded before their bodies were thrown into a river in eastern India after he secretly married a wealthy girl, police said Wednesday.

Police in the eastern state of Bihar found the eight bodies floating in a river and have charged 15 people, mostly from the girl’s family, with the murders.

The weekend killing took place after 21-year-old Ratan Mandal eloped with 18-year-old Kanchan Kumari and got married secretly, afraid their families would never approve due to an old social rivalry.

Hat tip to Kara!

He sells daughter for beer & meat:

A California man was arrested for selling his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000 – and a whole lot of beer.

Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, 36, wanted 100 cases of Corona, 50 cases of Modelo, 100 cases of soda and two cases of wine, topped off with six cases of beef.

His daughter was packed off to live with 18-year-old Margarito Galindo, and the two lived as husband and wife.

But Galindo never made good on the marriage contract, so Martinez called the police to report his daughter as a runaway.

Investigators soon unearthed the real story and Martinez was charged with a felony under human-trafficking laws. Galindo could face statutory-rape charges.

Family of 69 live in one street 

The Hall family have come to dominate Cotswold Gardens in Lobley Hill, Gateshead, since Catherine Hall first settled in the street in 1958. The 76-year-old matriarch held her dynasty together until she died last month. During her life Mrs Hall had six children, who went on to give her 35 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The 69-strong clan now occupy more than 15 houses along the street, ranging from four-week-old Ellie to great uncle Jo, 76. Between them they have more than 50 pets, including four parrots, 30 chickens, 11 dogs, two goldfish and four horses. If you include the 160 racing pigeons, there are almost 300 mouths to feed.

Jim Jones’ followers enthralled by his skills as a speaker

The key to understanding the tragedy that was Jonestown lies in the oratory skills of the Peoples Temple founder, Jim Jones. Rev. Jim Jones “He was very charismatic,” Leslie Wagner-Wilson, a Jonestown survivor, says of the Rev. Jim Jones. Click to view previous image 1 of 2 Click to view next image With the cadence and fervor of a Baptist preacher, the charm and folksiness of a country storyteller and the zeal and fury of a maniacal dictator, Jones exhorted his followers to a fever pitch, audiotapes recovered from Jonestown reveal. As he spoke, they applauded, shouted, cheered. One follower who survived the “revolutionary suicide” at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, said that Jones was the most dynamic speaker he had ever heard. Like all powerful speakers, Jones’ greatest asset was his ability to determine what listeners wanted to hear and give it to them in simple language that appealed to them on an almost instinctual level.

Man attacks wife for not getting him new spouse

A 57-year-old Malaysian Muslim man assaulted his wife and threatened to shoot her after she failed to secure him a young second wife, news reports said on Wednesday. Mohamad Haris Daud, a local police chief in Kuantan in central Pahang state, said the man forced his 60-year-old wife to seek the consent of a woman in her 30s to be his second wife. The frightened wife then went to the woman’s house but found out that she was already married, he said. “After she told her husband that the woman was married, he ran amok and started beating her and threatened to cut her with a machete”, Mohamad was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia newspaper.

Giant toy rabbit spotted from space:

A group of Austrian artists have made a giant pink toy rabbit in the Italian Alps can be seen via satellite from outer space. The 200-foot long rabbit, knitted by Vienna-based art collective, Gelitin, was created as an outdoor sculpture, and was designed for visitors to climb on, sleep on, and play with. Now the artists at Gelitin are delighted to note that the bunny can be seen via satellite on the internet by visitors to Google Earth.

Albinos in Burundi flee killings:

Albinos in Burundi have been taking refuge after three of them were killed by gangs apparently seeking to sell body parts in neighbouring Tanzania. Four albinos were moved to a provincial centre on Thursday in Ruyigi, Burundi, where police were protecting them, the BBC’s Prime Ndikumagenge reports. Authorities have arrested six people in connection with the murder of an albino teenage girl in August. The attacks follow the killing of 26 Tanzanian albinos in less than a year.

British couple get married strapped to 2 biplanes

It was Katie and Darren’s wedding day and they were in the clouds — strapped to the top of biplanes reciting vows 1,000 feet above the earth.

Katie Hodgson, 23, took to the skies Tuesday in a full bridal gown on the top wing of red-and-white plane operated by Team Guinot, a group of stunt pilots. Groom Darren McWalters, 24, flew by her side on an identical plane, while the Rev. George Bringham — flying ahead of the couple — married them over an airborne communications system.

Sky News television footage of the ceremony showed the bride’s dressed fluttering wildly in foul weather as the three shouted to make themselves heard over the din of the aircraft.

“I ask you therefore, will you love her, honor and keep her and be faithful to her so long as you both shall live?” Bringham yelled.

“I will!” McWalters yelled back.

In Energy-Stingy Japan, an Extravagant Indulgence: Posh Privies

When it comes to saving energy, the Japanese have much to teach the United States and other rich countries, whose leaders descend on Japan next month for a Group of Eight summit.

Energy consumption per person here is about half that in the United States, and the growth of greenhouse gas emissions is slower than anywhere in the industrialized world.

There is a hiccup, though, in this world-beating record. It happens inside the Japanese home, where energy use is surging. And nothing embodies the surge quite like the toilet — a plumbing fixture that has been reengineered here as an ultracomfy energy hog.

Japanese toilets can warm and wash one’s bottom, whisk away odors with built-in fans and play water noises that drown out potty sounds. They play relaxation music, too. “Ave Maria” is a favorite.

Woman jailed for worshipping teapot

A Malaysian court has jailed a woman for following a bizarre cult centred around a giant teapot.

She was sentenced on Monday for declaring herself an apostate while she was still a Muslim, news agency Bernama said.

Apostasy is a criminal offence in mainly Muslim Malaysia, whose state religion is Islam but which tolerates other major religions.

Kamariah Ali, a widow with four children, was arrested in 2005 along with 57 other followers of the cult built around a giant teapot.

Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt

It was lunchtime in one of Haiti’s worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti’s poorest can’t afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country’s central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

China Debuts 1,000-Stall Public Restroom

They’re flush with pride in a southwestern Chinese city where a recently-opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 32,290 square feet.

Officials in Chongqing are preparing to submit an application to Guinness World Records to have the free four-story public bathroom listed as the world’s largest, the state-run China Central Television reported Friday.

Guyana Woman Accused As Vampire Lynched:

A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies, police said Monday.

Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an “Old Higue”—the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.

The woman, who has not been identified, was beaten to death and her remains were found on Saturday in a village 15 miles east of Georgetown, police said.

New Noah’s Ark ready to sail

The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was thrown open Saturday — you could say it was the first time in 4,000 years — drawing a crowd of curious pilgrims and townsfolk to behold the wonder.

Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark, built by Dutch creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible.

Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan’s fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold.

“The design is by my wife, Bianca,” Huibers said. “She didn’t really want me to do this at all, but she said if you’re going to anyway, it should look like this.”

French said to outpace Americans in French-bashing

The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.The survey of six nations, carried out for the International Herald Tribune daily and France 24 TV station, said 44 percent of French people thought badly of themselves against 38 percent of U.S. respondents who had a negative view of the French.

Only 14 percent of Germans, 25 percent of Italians, 29 percent of Spaniards and 33 percent of Britons had a negative view of the French, according to the Harris/Novatris poll, which questioned more than 1,000 people in each country.

Hawaii Park rangers: Please don’t feed the volcano:

Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea — including food they say attracts rats and cockroaches. Visitors leave 45 pounds of offerings from Halemaumau Crater each week, including flowers, bottles, money, incense, candles and crystals, park rangers say.

Sudan man forced to ‘marry’ goat:

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his “wife”, after he was caught having sex with the animal. The goat’s owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders. They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi. “We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together,” Mr Alifi said.

Human waste to plug extinct Auckland volcano

Auckland has come up with a novel plan for getting rid of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of human waste – use it to fill one of its many extinct volcanos, then turn it into a regional park.

Local authority-owned Watercare Services announced this week that it had signed a $25 million, 30-year deal with Puketutu Island’s owners to dump the 61 tonnes of biosolids – cleaned, treated and dried human waste – produced by its Mangere treatment plant each week.

The waste would be dumped on a side of the volcanic island that had been extensively quarried in the past 50 years. The island’s original volcanic cone formation could also be rebuilt using the biosolids, subject to public opinion, spokesman Clive Nelson said.

Many Americans see little point to Web

A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released on Friday. Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.

Chinese burn Viagra replicas for randy ancestors:

Chinese cemeteries are selling paper replicas of Viagra pills to be burned for dead relatives as a wish for satisfying sex in the afterlife, state media reported Wednesday. Customers are snapping up the paper Viagra, as well as images of condoms and heavily made-up bar girls ahead of the annual Tombsweeping Festival on April 5, the Nanjing Morning News reported. Chinese have traditionally burned fake money in honour of dead relatives during the festival, when families clean their ancestors’ tombs and graves.

Romania returns Carpathian castle to former king

Romania returned a picturesque castle in the Carpathian mountains to its former king, who was chased out by the communist regime 60 years ago.

The Peles castle, now hosting a museum and an art collection, has become a popular tourist attraction since opening to the public after the execution of Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.

According to a memorandum signed by the representatives of the former monarch King Michael, the castle will be sold back to Romania if authorities agree to keep it as a museum.

Village has bribery problem: there isn’t any

Villagers in southeastern China are up in arms after missing out on lucrative bribes during a recent village elections when candidates foreswore the practice at a temple, according to a Communist Party monthly magazine.

Officials up for election in Dingmei village in Fujian province had to swear to the party they would not bribe voters, but they went one further and took the same oath at a village temple, magazine Xiao Kang said in its March issue.
…
“But this election, they went to the temple and all we got was a bowl of rice and bottle of beer after all was said and done,” he said. “It’s peanuts.” The magazine said villagers were used to getting up to 1,000 yuan ($130) from candidates.

 Heaven’s Gate revisited:

Ten years ago next week, one of the strangest events in county history exploded into the public’s consciousness. For several days, it was the biggest news story in the world.

It began unfolding the afternoon of Wednesday, March 26, 1997, during a period when the Hale-Bopp comet could be seen in the night sky.

 Inside a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult lay dead. Convinced that a spaceship was traveling behind the comet and that they would be transported to the vessel to begin a new life “beyond human,” they had poisoned themselves. Twenty-one women and 18 men died by eating pudding and applesauce laced with phenobarbital and other drugs – the largest mass suicide on U.S. soil.

Dog’s dinners prove popular in Nigeria:

“Welcome to animal kingdom where man pikin dey show dog pepper,” says Chibuzo Eze in Pidgin English, meaning: Welcome to place where the son of man is giving dogs a hard time.

Mr Eze then hungrily gets back to tugging his chunk of dog meat.
…
Mr Eze says he eats dog meat because “e dey protect person from all those nyama-nyama disease them” – it gives you immunity from different diseases.

“Seven words you can never say on television”… but which are said on the Internet. A lot.:

The Net’s not always a kid-friendly place; there is plenty of foul language out there. And of course, the blogosphere is no different.

But how different are the Rightosphere and Leftosphere when it comes to “dirty” language? Which side produces the most profanity-laced diatribes? Via Instapundit, I happened upon this interesting challenge from InstaPunk:

I propose an exercise to be performed by those who have the software and expertise to carry it out. The exercise is this: Search six months’ worth of content, posts and comments, of the 20 most popular blogs on the right and the left. The search criteria are George Carlin’s infamous ‘7 Dirty Words.’

…
So how much more does the Left use Carlin’s “seven words” versus the Right? According to my calculations, try somewhere in the range of 18-to-1.

Read the whole thing – the total for the left is 384,788. The right comes in at 21,319
UPDATE: including more heavily trafficked blogs on both sides makes it even worse! 1537788-to-37285. 41-to-1.