Karl's Weird News

Park visitors met with bodies of entombed deer:

People visiting a UK park in the hope of seeing Christmas reindeer were greeted with a horrific sight — the bodies of several animals which had fallen through the ice and drowned.

The bodies and antlers of at least eight deer and stags could be seen protruding through the frozen lake at a Durham deer park, the Daily Mail reported.

Visitors could also see hoof marks leading to where the deer broke the ice and fell into the freezing lake.

Parents of children who were visiting the park, which promotes itself as an “authentic” place to celebrate Christmas, said they were stunned by the sight.

“My son was distressed and we did not feel comfortable,” said a woman who was visiting with her eight-year-old son.

“It was an awful sight and nothing seems to be done about it.”

Backing off an arsenic-eating claim:

Amid a flurry of criticism, a NASA-funded team on Thursday backed off the more extravagant, textbook-changing claims they’d made about a bacterium that had allegedly substituted arsenic for phosphorus in its DNA.

The original announcement, made at a NASA news conference Dec. 2, seemed to break a cardinal rule of biology that all organisms need some phosphorus to survive.

NASA researchers claimed to have discovered an exotic organism in California’s Mono Lake that lived instead on arsenic, thus broadening the types of life that may exist in the universe.

The news made headlines worldwide including a New York Times story that ran in The Inquirer on Dec. 3.

On Thursday, the researchers issued a more modest claim. Instead of saying the microbes had completely substituted arsenic for phosphorus, a new statement says the arsenic replaced “a small percentage” of the phosphorus.

A number of biologists say they’ll be surprised if even this stands the test of time.

The claims “do not follow from their results,” said Simon Silver, a University of Illinois microbiologist who specializes in heavy-metal resistance in bacteria.

“This conclusion is not merited from what they did and measured and I think it most likely is a mistake and should never have been claimed or published.”

Report: Co-pilot moved seat, sent jetliner plummeting

The co-pilot of an Air India Express 737 sent the jetliner into a terrifying 7,000-foot plunge in May when he accidentally hit the control column while adjusting his seat, investigators report.

According to the report from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the co-pilot panicked and was unable to execute the proper procedures as the jetliner dropped from 37,000 feet at a 26-degree angle.

The plane and its 113 passengers were saved when the pilot, who’d gone on a bathroom break, used an emergency code to get into the locked cockpit, jumped back into his seat and grabbed the controls to bring the plummeting plane out of its dive.

The aircraft would have broken apart if the descent had continued, the aviation agency report said.

The aircraft was not damaged and no one was injured, the report said. After the pilot, 39, regained control of the plane, he told passengers, who were in the middle of a meal when the jet plunged, that the plane had “went through an air pocket and that is why there was a rapid descent,” according to the report.

Cream and sugar with your jet fuel? Plane water tanks mistakenly filled

Three planes belonging to the airline Germanwings reportedly took off this weekend with jet fuel in their drinking water tanks, which nearly made it into passengers’ coffee cups.

According to daily Bild, a 21-year-old service company employee on Saturday thought he was filling the planes at Berlin’s Schönefeld airport with water, not realising the 3,000-litre tank was contaminated with fuel.

The mistake was not discovered until after the planes to Zweibrücken, Cologne and Munich took off, Germanwings spokesman Joachim Schöttes said on Sunday.

The crews all reported noticing a strange smell while preparing beverages for passengers, at which point they decided to serve juice and soft drinks instead, Bild reported.

“The passengers had to do without tea and coffee,” Schöttes said.

President George Washington racks up $300,000 late fee for two Manhattan library books:

He may have never told a lie, but George Washington apparently had no problem stiffing a Manhattan library on two books.

Two centuries ago, the nation’s first President borrowed two tomes from the New York Society Library on E. 79th St. and never returned them, racking up an inflation-adjusted $300,000 late fee.

But Washington can rest easy. “We’re not actively pursuing the overdue fines,” quipped head librarian Mark Bartlett.

“But we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back.” Washington’s dastardly deed went unknown for almost 150 years.

Then in 1934, a dusty, beaten-up ledger was discovered in a trash heap in the library’s basement.

Two Russian directors boil to death in sauna

TWO Russian men died in a sauna after jumping into a plunge pool that had accidentally been heated to boiling point, investigators and media said.

The two men jumped into the pool to cool down after sweating in a steam room. A third man tried to save the victims but was unable to pull the men out of the boiling water, Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid reported today.

The two men’s bodies were discovered in the sauna in the city of Kirov in central Russia on February 18 and “their death was caused by overheating”, the Kirov regional investigative committee confirmed in a statement.

The water in the pool was “overheated due to an error by one of the victims,” investigators said.

Australian woman ‘decapitated during freak lawnmower accident’

An Australian woman walking to work was killed during a freak accident after she was struck in the head by flying metal thrown up by a grass cutter, which left her decapitated.

The 42 year-old woman, who has not been named, is believed to have been struck by a 60cm piece of steel pipe, in what witnesses described as a “freak accident”.

Workplace safety officials have launched an investigation into the accident, which occurred on Wednesday morning in the north Queensland town of Townsville.

The Daily Telegraph understands the woman was decapitated and died instantly at the scene after walking past an empty block of land just after 8am.

Police said a tractor pulling a grass cutter ran over a steel pipe that had been lying in the long grass, which was then sent flying through the air at great speed.

Hat tip to Jonathan!

The iPad? Also available with wings?:

Twitter users responded snarkily Wednesday to the name of Apple’s latest innovation the iPad, pushing the phrase “iTampon” to a number two “trending” topic on the microblogging site.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new gadget amid high expectations, and Twitter users followed his announcement online, with both “Steve Jobs” and “Official Apple iPad” scoring high on the site’s trending topics.

But by late afternoon, joking messages drawing attention to the connotations many associated with the name iPad were being uploaded by Twitter users all over the world, in a variety of languages.

For Accenture, breaking up with Tiger Woods is hard to do

Dropping Tiger Woods is not as easy as taking down a few billboards or canceling a media campaign.

For Accenture, the corporate consultancy that on Sunday announced it would discontinue its six-year relationship with the celebrity golfer, Woods is so tightly intertwined in every component of its brand – appearing even on company stationery – that it must now essentially start from scratch to redefine itself to the public and its clients.

The enormity of the marketing challenge facing Accenture is leading some in the marketing industry to take a look at the wisdom of resting an entire corporate identity on a single individual.

“No matter how blue chip a stock is, it can always go bad on you,” says Jeremy Mullman, sport marketing reporter for Advertising Age.

Student killed by exploding chewing gum

The 25-year-old chemistry student, who has not been named by police, was working at his parents’ home in Konotop when relatives heard a “loud pop”.

They rushed to his room and discovered his body. The lower half of his face had been seriously disfigured by the blast.

 The Russian news agency Ria Novosti said forensic tests found the chewing gum was covered with an unidentified chemical substance, thought to be some type of explosive.

Colorado Boy Floats Away In Balloon

A 6-year-old boy is floating over northeastern Colorado in a homebuilt balloon and authorities are racing to try and rescue him.

The balloon, in the shape of a flying saucer is covered in foil and filled with helium. It has a compartment for a passenger underneath. It lifted the boy into the air near Fort Collins Thursday morning after the balloon became untethered at the boy’s home.

“We were sitting eating, out looking where they normally shoot off hot air balloons. My husband said he saw something. It went over our rooftop. Then we saw the big round balloonish thing, it was spinning,” said neighbor Lisa Eklund.

The father and son had apparently been working on the aircraft for some time.

Dog Playing Fetch in Germany Delivers Live Grenade to Owner 

A dog playing fetch in Germany has found and delivered to its owner a U.S. hand grenade from World War II.

Police in the western town of Erkrath said Monday they were called by the dog’s 40-year-old owner who stopped walking her pooch when she recognized the “rusty” object it was carrying was a weapon.

Police summoned a munitions expert Sunday to identify and defuse the grenade.

$10m instead of $10,000: couple on run after bank bungle 

A New Zealand couple are reportedly on the run after $10 million – instead of $10,000 – was mistakenly deposited in their bank account.

The couple, who ran a Rotorua service station, were understood to have applied for a $10,000 overdraft from Westpac but instead had the larger amount mistakenly paid into their account.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey said some of the money had since been withdrawn and the Asian couple had disappeared, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

Interpol had been called in to help find them, NZPA said.

The service station has closed its doors after going into receivership.

Golden arches topple, crush Naperville couple

A giant set of golden arches outside a McDonald’s in eastern Arizona toppled in high winds Wednesday, crushing a Naperville couple’s Chevy Trailblazer as they sat inside the parked vehicle. Retirees Russell and Carolyn Janke suffered multiple injuries.

They had stopped at the McDonald’s on the Navajo Nation reservation in Window Rock as they were making their way back to suburban Chicago from their winter home near Tucson.

Navajo acting Police Chief Steven Nelson said winds hit 60 mph Wednesday, causing the sign to be blown down from atop a pole across the street from the restaurant.

“It was a freak accident,’’ Nelson said.

Pictured: The driver who took on a puddle … then discovered it was a 12-foot deep crater

A Ukranian driver already having a bad day – having taken a wrong turn onto a highway – found it getting a lot worse when he gingerly crept over a water-filled pothole, only to discover it was a 12-foot deep crater.

 The formerly shiny hatchback moved over the hole and then, with no time to reverse, found itself plunging deep into an abyss caused by a broken water main.

The driver had to smash his rear window and scramble out to the top to avoid a muddy end, before waiting for workmen to come and rescue his car. A crowd then formed as workers drained the hole, exposing the extensive damage suffered by the Vokswagen, which will also need a good clean before getting back on the road.

Airline Delivers Dead Body to Pet Store

Workers at a pet store in Northeast Philly spent half the day Tuesday freakin’ out.

They went to pick up a big box of fish at the airport today.

 They came back with a big box. Eight feet long. It had a body inside.

 We got this frantic email at 12:36 p.m.: “Please contact me ASAP about a dead body mistakenly picked up at the airport a few minutes ago by a local pet store. Was supposed to pick up fish and we received a dead human body! Is in the store RIGHT NOW!”

Reply-All E-mail Storm Hits State Department

Many “reply all” fiascos result in mere embarrassment, but American diplomats have been told they may be punished for sending mass responses after an e-mail storm nearly knocked out one of the State Department’s main electronic communications systems.

A cable sent last week to all employees at the department’s Washington headquarters and overseas missions warns of unspecified “disciplinary actions” for using the “reply to all” function on e-mail with large distribution lists.

The cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was prompted by a major interruption in departmental e-mail caused by numerous diplomats hitting “reply all” to an errant message inadvertently addressed and copied to several thousand recipients.

Four-year-old shoots babysitter who ’stood on his foot’

A four-year-old boy grabbed a gun and shot his babysitter after the teenager accidentally stepped on the child’s foot.

Police said Nathan Beavers, 18, and several other teenagers were looking after a number of young children at a mobile home in Jackson, Ohio, when the shooting occurred.

The child, identified by local media as Ethan Crisp, was apparently angry after Mr Beavers trod on his foot, witnesses said, and stormed off to his bedroom saying he was going to get a gun. Those present assumed he was going to fetch a toy.

But the toddler reappeared clasping a shotgun taken from a bedroom cupboard and fired at Mr Beavers.

Weather rocket kills man and blows up his body at cremation

The body of Wang Diange, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, was found in the wreckage of a house where he had been overseeing the wake of a previous family funeral, after mourners felt a loud explosion which took off half the roof. As it was raining and thundery, they decided that the house, and Mr Wang in particular, had been struck by lightning. The police came to the same conclusion. Further inquiries were made a few days later after Mr Wang’s own funeral. As his body was being put into the cremation chamber, it blew up spectacularly, bursting the doors off the oven. When the fire had been put out, the only clue as to what had happened was a small twisted piece of metal, which seemed to be the glowing remnants of a screw.

Would-Be Bride Swept to Sea During Proposal on Oregon Coast

A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea.

Police don’t suspect foul play in the disappearances Saturday of Leafil Alforque, Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson said. Thick fog and dangerous water conditions off Neskowin Beach hampered the rescue efforts, and the search was called off Monday.

Scott Napper had a ring in his pocket and planned to pop the question to Alforque, 22, at Proposal Rock, which got its name from couples ready to marry.

Napper said the tide had receded around the rock when the couple began to walk to it, but then a wave around 3 feet high suddenly came in.

“I turned into it to keep from getting pulled under it,” Napper said. By the time he turned to find Alforque, who was only 4-foot-11, she had been caught by the receding waters.

Authorities Say Vodka-Drinking Father Accidently Shoots, Kills Daughter

A father arrested after his 6-year-old daughter was shot to death in their Washington state home allegedly told police he had been drinking double shots of vodka while cleaning his guns. Court papers say Richard Peters told detectives he had asked his daughter, Stormy, to bring him the .45-caliber handgun Sunday. He said he must have pulled the trigger, and the girl fell to the floor. She was pronounced dead Monday. Bail for Richard Peters, 42, was set Monday at $250,000. He has been arrested for investigation of first-degree manslaughter.

 New York Construction Worker Falls 48 Stories to His Death

A construction worker fell about 48 stories to his death at a Manhattan construction site, fire officials said. The worker ? who was on a crew dismantling a crane ? apparently tumbled from a walkway between the crane and the building, according to officials at the scene. He landed in a construction lot that is surrounded by a fence, and his body was placed in an ambulance.

Media incorrectly report congresswoman’s death

Several major news organizations, including The Associated Press, prematurely reported the death Wednesday of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who had suffered a brain hemorrhage while driving in suburban Cleveland.

The reports were corrected after a doctor said at an afternoon news conference that Tubbs Jones was in critical condition with limited brain function. The Cleveland Clinic announced later that the 58-year-old Democrat died about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Various Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity provided the basis for most of the erroneous reports. They were out for anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour on CNN, CBS, Fox and Web sites for The Washington Post and The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer as well as the AP.

The AP moved its one-sentence, Washington-dated NewsAlert reporting the death at 2:30 p.m., attributing the information to a Democratic Party official. After the hospital news conference, the AP moved out a corrected alert at 2:44 p.m.

According to AP Washington News Editor Matt Yancey, the AP had spoken earlier to Democratic and Republican officials about Tubbs Jones’ condition and they declined to speak on the record or on background. One of the Democratic officials later called back and, willing to speak on condition of anonymity, said Tubbs Jones had died.

Glass Pane Plummets 40-Plus Stories In Times Square

A sidewalk in Times Square turned risky when an entire window pane from a building under renovation simply gave way, shattered into shards and fell more than 40 stories onto scaffolding.

It happened at 1 Times Square near 42nd Street and Broadway at about 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Emergency Unit endeavored to remove a dangling chunk of glass poking from a high-rise window that remained after the pane fell.

No one was hurt, but police closed Broadway from 42nd to 43rd streets for a short time as a precaution.

This is the third time in a week that glass has plummeted from a skyscraper.

17 injured by live ammo at open day

FOUR people including a child were in a critical condition today after live bullets were used instead of blanks during a French special forces open day, army and regional officials said.

Seventeen people were injured in total.

Fifteen civilians and two soldiers were injured in the incident, of which the details remained unclear, involving a demonstration by members of a marines parachute regiment of hostage liberation exercises, a regional authority, Bernard Lemaire, said.

Four of the 17 were seriously injured, with two described as critical following “incomprehensible” scenes at the barracks near Carcassone, in the country’s south-west.

According to local authorities, five children were among the injured.