StrangeSights

• It’s probably not a bad place to get shipwrecked - unless you have a morbid fear of rats. Australian family, the Barries, have been shipwrecked on the Micronesian island of Mogmog and will apparently have to stay as guests of the island’s 200 inhabitants for six months while they repair their yacht. There’s some great snorkelling to be had (sunken US warships abound) but no electricity, clocks or running water and the island is also reportedly home to coconut crabs (which, as their name suggests, can crush coconuts with their claws) as well as many, many rats.

• Dragging your husband around sound like fun? A new event at this year’s Countryfest in the WA town of Singleton (and believed to be a world first), the art of ‘husband dragging’ involves pulling him away from the ‘pub’, getting him to put out the rubbish and then having him run back to the ‘pub’ to skol a drink. The festival - which took place on 27th March at the showgrounds - also features a wife carrying event. The winner of this event is heading to the world championships in Finland.

• A couple of US academics have shown how portion sizes have grown over the past 1000 years by comparing servings depicted in images of the Last Supper. Cornell University Professor Brian Wansink and his brother, Craig Wansink, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College, examined 52 paintings of the last supper and used computer technology to examine and compare serving sizes. Their results showed the size of the main course has increased by 69.2 per cent, the size of plates by 65.6 per cent, and the size of bread served by 23.1 per cent and.

• Now that’s hot! The Indian army believes it’s found the world’s hottest chilli pepper - the bhut jolokia, which is reportedly said to be 100 times hotter than a jalapeno and 200 times hotter than tabasco sauce. They’re apparently harnessing all that heat to create ‘chilli stun grenades’ which they intend using in the fight against terrorism. Reports suggest the chilli packs has a rating on the Scoville scale of more than a million compared to 10,000 for a jalapeno chilli.

• Ireland has a new national museum for leprechauns. The new museum, which opened in Dublin earlier this month, is apparently aimed at changing the way people view leprechauns, moving them away from the familiar kitsch images of little green men smoking pipes and wearing green. But don’t expect to find a leprechaun at the museum (although apparently there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow) - according to reports the exhibitions actually consist of sculptures based around some of the themes commonly represented in leprechaun mythology.

• It’s a title to be proud of. The dung beetle species known as Onthophagus taurus has reportedly been named the world’s strongest insect after scientists found it can pull a load of 1,141 times its body weight. It apparently needs all this strength to fend off rivals when looking for a mate, using it to push them out of tunnels.

• The @ symbol has come of age with news the Museum of Modern Art in New York has inducted it into its Department of Architecture and Design (along with the likes of the Volkswagen Beetle and the Bic Pen). The symbol apparently has a long list of nicknames - from the ‘monkey’s tail’ to the ’snail’ and even the ’strudel’.

• It sounds like an ideal job. A UK-based company has reportedly advertised a position for someone to eat - and more than they usually would. Proactol Ltd, which makes a weight loss product, says the successful candidate will be paid £23,000 a year to eat 16 per cent more calories a week than they usually do while introducing its weight loss product in their diet at the same time. “The ideal candidate should not already be on a diet but eat a healthy balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins and be prepared to increase their existing calorie intake by 16 per cent a week by eating fatty foods such as Chinese takeaways, fish and chips, pizza or McDonald’s,” says the ad. How does someone prepare a resume for that?

• It was an unusual piece of real estate to say the least. A Cold War bunker in Derbyshire, England, has sold for more than £20,000 after it was placed on online auction site eBay. Reportedly built in 1959, the bunker was designed as a post from where fallout from a nuclear bomb could be monitored and was operational until the early Nineties.

• They’re called the ‘Kangatarians’ - a group of people who reportedly normally shun meat but who make an exception for kangaroos given they’re free ranging animals that are killed humanely - with a single shot to the head. University of Sydney academic Peter Ampt - himself an advocate of kangaroo meat - says he’s not sure how many people are in the group but that their numbers are slowly growing.

• Forget old sayings about raining cats and dogs, it’s been quite literally raining fish in the Northern Territory. Fish have reportedly fallen twice from the sky in the town of Lajamanu, located about 550 kilometres southwest of Katherine. Local Christine Balmer told the Northern Territory News that “hundreds and hundreds” of small white fish fell from the sky, adding that she was happy it hadn’t rained crocodiles. The town had apparently been bombarded by fish twice before - back in 2004 and then in 1974. Experts have suggested a tornado may have caused the rather odd phenomena.

• A controversial new phone service has been launched in France for Catholics. The ‘Line of the Lord’ service, which is charged on a per minute basis, has been established for ‘minor sins’ to be confessed with a voice on the hotline warning people that more serious sins should still be confessed to a priest. Callers are not connected to a living person but provided with an “atmosphere of privacy and reflection”. The hotline, which does not have the sanction of the Catholic Church, has angered some officials who say a priest is indispensable to the confessional process.

• Fancy tackling the high seas in a…vegetable? Welsh farmer Medwyn Williams, chairman of the National Vegetable Society in the UK, has announced plans to grow a 725 kilogram pumpkin which he then intends to fit out with a seat and outboard motor before he and his son ’sail’ it to the Isle of Man. It’s all for a good cause - the Williams’ are hoping to raise money for Help for Heroes, a charity aimed at helping British soldiers wounded on duty. The name of the vessel? The HMV Cinderella (HMV as in Her Majesty’s Vegetable).