StrangeSights

In case you didn’t know, Easter Monday this year co-incided with April Fool’s Day and it seemed everyone had a gag or two up their sleeve. Here is just a small sample of some of the pranks we came across:

• YouTube announced that its entire catalogue of films would be deleted - turns out the whole site was just a competition launched to find the best video clip and the search has come to an end;

• Google launched its new scent search app, Google Nose, which comes with the ability for you to search by smell, as well as its new extension of Google Maps - a feature to find treasure;

• In Australia, Google Streetview launched a new service - Schmick - which enables you to transform your home into the house you’d like it to be with a few simple clicks of the mouse;

• Sony launched Animalia Tech - technology aimed at your pets - think headphones for your cat, a laptop for your dog; and,

• Skype, meanwhile, launched a new service allowing you to speak to you loved ones in…space;

• Virgin boss Richard Branson announced his airline had plans to launch a glass-floored plane - the world’s first - a story which was apparently picked up and run on Chinese television.

Let us know of any you found particularly good!

• A German travel agency is reportedly selling tickets for an comet fly-past. Bonn-based Eclipse Travel has joined with charter agency Air Partner and airline Air Berlin to offer 88 people the chance to be among those on a two hour flight aimed at giving them a relatively close-up view of comet Pan-STARRS as it passes within 100 million miles of Earth on 16th March. The plane will zig-zag at a height of 11,000 metres where the atmosphere is clearer and cleaner (and hopefully above the clouds).

• Could your grass do with a coat of paint? Pictures have reportedly emerged from the town of Chengdu in China’s south-west showing local government workers spray-painting some grass green with a chemical solution called the ‘Top Green Turf Greening Agent’. The dye - which is apparently non-toxic - has also been used in a range of other localities including golf courses.

• If you see a Yeti while in the Himalayas, you may capture or film them but do not shoot them (unless you need to in self-defence). Such was the advice issued by the US Embassy in Nepal in 1959. A memo released by the National Archives in the US late last year detailed a series of three regulations for would-be Yeti hunters to abide by. They include the amount needed to be paid to the Government of Nepal for a permit to hunt the Yeti (5000 rupees); that the Yeti should not be shot at; and, that any news and reports which may “throw light” on the existence of the creature should be surrendered to the Nepalese Government.

• Ahhh, that satisfying feeling of popping bubble-wrap. Students at a US high school reportedly took it to the extreme recently when they broke the world record for the largest amount of bubble-wrap popped in two minutes. More than 350 students took part in the attempt (part of Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, of course), popping as much as 8,000 square feet of bubble-wrap.

• A tortoise has survived for 30 years after it was accidentally locked in a storeroom. The tortoise, Manuela, reportedly went missing from her home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1982, and search efforts proved fruitless. Until, that is, a clean-up of the house following the death of its owner, resulted in the storeroom being unlocked and Manuela being found still alive inside a box.

• A US brewer has come up with a new beverage for pooches - a non-alcoholic beer. Dawg Grog, as it’s named, is reportedly the work of Daniel Keeton who, as well as working as a taster in a brewery in Oregon, also makes his own home brew. The first batch of the beer - made from ‘wort’ left over in the process of brewing alcoholic beer - went on sale in the middle of last year.

• A prized 19th century fresco depicting Jesus Christ at a church in Spain has reportedly been all but destroyed after a grandmother, apparently with the very best of intentions, decided to carry out her own restoration project. The 120-year-old fresco - Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Elijah Garcia Martinez, is located at the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza. It had been damaged by water but was still relatively intact before the woman, aged in her 80s, decided to fix it by carrying out her own touch-up job, since labelled by some as the worst art restoration of all time.

• Dog-shaming has become the latest internet craze thanks to a Tumblr site in which users submit pictures of their dogs looking appropriately guilty as they stand or sit next to a sign stating their crimes. The Dog Shaming site has garnered attention from media around the world and gained a strong following on Facebook as owners apparently eagerly dob in their pooches. Among the more palatable entries we’ve seen: “I ate the remote control”, “Soccerballs terrify me!”, and the rather painful “Porcupines are NOT chew toys”.

• It’s not a swimming pool for the faint-hearted. A hotel in Shanghai has opened which comes complete with a swimming pool which partly projects out of the building 24 stories above the ground and comes complete with a glass bottom so you can watch those so, so far below while you have a swim. The glass-bottomed pool, at the Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao, is apparently not the only pool of its kind. Take a look here to see some further examples.

• It’s official - mermaids don’t exist. That’s according to the US Government’s National Ocean Service who issued a statement earlier this month saying exactly that: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” Noting that belief in mermaids may have arisen at the “very dawn of our species” the statement adds: “Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.” The statement follows one from the US Government last year saying there was no evidence any life exists outside our planet. But that debate will continue following recent revelations by an ex-CIA agent that the famous Roswell incident really did involve “a craft that did not come from this planet”. A recent poll showed more than a third of Americans believe UFOs exist.

• Batman could fly using his specially-designed bat wing-like cape but the landing would probably kill him. That’s reportedly the conclusion of four students at the University of Leicester in the UK who, taking Christian Bale’s rigid wings in the film Batman Begins as a starting point, have worked out that the landing impact would likely be around 80 kph, similar to being hit by a car. Best stick to the Batmobile, Batman!

• They make regular appearances on Funniest Home Videos and have had more than one viral hit on the internet. Now comes the film festival dedicated to funny videos of…cats. The Internet Cat Video Film Festival will take place in the US city of Minneapolis on 30th August. Nominations for what you think are the funniest videos are now open.

• The dogs recently hit the surf in California for the 7th annual Loews Surf Dog Competition. This year saw more than 50 dogs showing their moves on the waves at Imperial Beach in San Diego - they are judged in a range of categories including small dogs, large dogs and tandems (sounds like a page out of Dr Seuss’ Go Dogs Go!) - as well as the setting of a number of new world records including one for the most dogs ever to ride on one board - 14.

• The Welsh community of Monmouth - famous for being the birthplace of King Henry V - has become the world’s first “Wikipedia town”. The move, dubbed Monmouthpedia, means Wikipedia now hosts more than 700 articles about the town and means visitors can use their phones to scan barcodes at places like historical sites, schools, museums and pubs to bring up relevant articles in a range of languages.

• The word ‘bogan’ has reportedly officially entered the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary’s June list of new word entries has apparently included the word which it defines as being Australian and New Zealand colloquial “depreciative term for unfashionable, uncouth, or unsophisticated person, esp. of low social status”.

• The UK might be preparing to host the Olympic Games later this year but some events, like shin-kicking, the wheelbarrow race and the sack race have already started. The annual Cotswold Olimpicks date from 1612 - meaning they celebrated their 400th anniversary this year. Shin-kicking is the star event at the games, held near the town of Chipping Camden, and involves competitors trying to kick each other in the shins and bring down their opponent. This year’s world champion was Zac Warren from the town of Pershore.

• Ever had that experience when a dog chases you for while as you ride a bike? A Chinese hound has reportedly taken it the next step by following cyclists competing in a road cycle race for more than 1,000 miles over 20 days. Xiao Sa, who has since become something of a sensation and now has her own ‘microblog’, started following the cyclists after one of them gave her some food. The 1,000 mile journey included climbs over at least 10 mountains.

• A robotic catfish called Charlie, a dead rat used to transport secret messages and a room in which visitors can try their hand at spycraft by negotiating a series of moving laserbeams are all part of a display of spy-related artifacts in New York City. SPY: The Secret World of Espionage is a new exhibition at Discovery Times Square features historic and modern gadgets culled from agencies including the CIA and FBI. Items on show also include a collapsible motorbike for use behind enemy lines in World War II and a camel saddle used by one of the first CIA agents in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. The exhibition runs until March next year.

• Ever wanted to live like a hamster? A hotel in France has been designed to allow humans to try out life as a hamster. Villa Hamster, located in a modernised 18th century building, reportedly features cages for rooms, haystacks in place of beds and human-sized running wheels. Guests are served organic “hamster grains” and water and have the option of wearing hamster hoodies as well. The hotel in Nantes has apparently been open for three years.

• Riding the elevator may never be the same again. UK biscuit maker McVities’ Jaffa Cakes has created a lift with lickable walls in a London building. It reportedly took food technicians and artists a month to stick more than 1,300 Jaffa Cake-flavoured stickers to the walls. The stickers are apparently removed once licked.

• A new cable channel has been launched in the US aimed solely at dogs. The on-demand channel DOGTV was originally launched in California with the aim of helping stay at home dogs stay out of trouble while their owners are at work. The content is specifically tailored for dogs with sound, colors and camera angles all apparently adjusted accordingly. And the stars of the shows are, of course, dogs. See http://dogtv.com.

• Tommaso, a former stray cat from Rome, became one of the world’s richest animals recently when he inherited more than $13 million in property and cash from his late mistress. Italian Maria Assunta, the childless widow of a property magnate, reportedly drew up a will which specified that Tommaso have her fortune spent on him and gave her lawyers the task of finding an animal welfare body to whom to give the inheritance and the job of looking after the four-year-old cat. The richest animal in the world is believed to be a German Shepherd called Gunther IV, who inherited about $140 million and who apparently now lives in a waterfront property in Miami. Follow this link for more on the world’s richest animals.

• He’s been everywhere, man. Lego Tourist is, you guessed it, a Lego man but what sets him apart from his millions of fellow minifigures is that he’s travelled thousands of kilometres around the world. Purchased by English woman Leanne Buchan last year before she took him to Australia, she now posts him to Lego enthusiasts around the world so they can photograph him in front of international landmarks and then mail him back. He’s already reportedly been snapped in front of so far are Tower Bridge in London, the Sydney Opera House and even in Norway where he attended the World Beard and Moustache Championships. Lego Tourist even has his own Facebook page where you can follow his wanderings.

• But back to animals and Pockets Warhol, a Capuchin monkey who lives at a primate sanctuary in Canada, must be toasting his success after reportedly selling his artworks for prices ranging into the hundreds of dollars. Buyers from as far afield as Europe have been buying the works which he started creating after being given the non-toxic paints to play with. The money raised will help fund a new barn for the sanctuary.

• Scientists have reportedly said they are 95 per cent sure that the mythical snow-monster, the yeti, is living in Siberia in Russia. A recent two day expedition in the region found “irrefutable evidence” of the existence of the yeti, it was claimed by the Kemerovo government which oversees the region. This included footprints and hairs. The conference had attracted scientists and enthusiasts from as far afield as Canada and the US, Sweden and Estonia. The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman and sasquatch, are also said to exist in the Himalayas and in North America.

• Don’t worry about trying to get the ball back. News has swept around the world of a golf course in Brisbane which has a rather unusual hazard - half a dozen bull sharks in the course’s 21 hectare lake. The shark’s, then juveniles, reportedly moved into the lake at the Carbrook Golf Course when the nearby Logan River flooded in the 1990s. The golfers are apparently unfazed - the club now hosts a monthly competition called the Shark Lake Challenge.

• Getting the silent treatment for your local traffic director? It could be because, like in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, they’ve reportedly employed 120 professional mimes to take on the job. Wearing clown outfits, the mimes were charged with reprimanding bad drivers in a bid to encourage politeness on the road. And they’re apparently not alone with mimes being put to good use in controlling traffic and pedestrians in Brazil and Colombia.