StrangeSights

• It’s Kitschmas again at the UK-based Ship of Fools website where this year’s ‘12 Days of Kitschmas’ list includes miniature archbishops to hang on your tree and a nativity scene in which all the characters are rubber ducks (good for the bathtub perhaps?). And in a nod to the world financial crisis, this year’s list also includes a a Jesus-shaped piggybank and a credit-card rosary.

• Looking for that last minute Christmas present? For the man who likes their meat, why not a bottle of Flame, a new body spray developed at Burger King which they describe as “the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat”. Tasty. If you’re looking for something at the top end, how about a space shuttle? NASA, looking to retire three shuttles in 2010, are looking for someone to display one of them. But it won’t come cheap - they estimate it could cost $US42 million to get the shuttles ready for display (although, to be fair, that does include transport). For something a little cheaper, why not a submarine - the former Royal Australian Navy sub HMAS Otama has been put on eBay with a price tag of more than $4.9 million after a plan to have it on display in the Victorian community of Hastings was sunk.

• Australia has a camel problem with a herd estimated to number a million causing environmental havoc in the nation’s centre, inflicting an estimated $15 million damage to year to an area which equates to a third of the continent. One solution posed following the release of a Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre report examining the extent of the problem is to use camel meat for human or pet consumption. Camel meat, mainly in the form of sausages and burgers, is currently only produced by one abattoir in Australia.

• The Australian Sporting Commission has launched a new talent search campaign on the internet featuring an obnoxious “Brit” wearing a hoodie who taunts Aussies about their lack of medals at the Beijing Olympics and invites them to “stand up and be counted” at the London Games in 2012. Understandably there’s been some bemusement both in the UK and at home over the approach taken but David Packwood from the ASC has been quoted as saying - “We’re not having a pop at you Brits. This is our way of getting Australians off thier backsides and thinking, jeez, I might be able to be in London 2012.”

• We’ve sent up monkeys and a dog but now it’s the bears turn. Britain has reportedly sent four teddy bears into the stratosphere as part of an experiment to monitor weather. The teddies were strapped to a weather balloon made by the Cambridge University space flight science club and two - known as MAT and KMS - have been snapped on a camera about 30,000 metres above the earth. Their spacesuits were created by children at two community colleges.