StrangeSights

• Ride on mowers might seem to have an obvious purpose - mowing lawns. But to a growing group of ride-on mower enthusiasts, they represent an emerging motorsport. There’s associations in numerous countries - including Australia - which oversee competitions including the annual British Grand Prix for Lawnmower Racing held earlier this month. Competitors are split into a range of categories including those for large tractors, sit-on buggies and machines with a grass-cutter on the front. Racers gather points as they race around the course and mud is seen as a good thing. Organisations in Australia include The Queensland Ride-On Mower Racing Association Inc.

• And you reckoned your last phone bill was high. A French woman recently received a phone bill for €11,721,000,000,000,000 - reportedly the equivalent of almost $15 thousand trillion dollars and almost 6,000 times France’s entire annual economic output. Needless to say, the bill was eventually corrected - back to the €117.21.

• An America man has paid someone to slap him in the face everytime he went on Facebook in an attempt to increase his productivity. Maneesh Sethi, a San Franciscan blogger, reportedly felt he was spending too much time on social media so, turning to Craigslist, he hired a woman to slap him whenever his attention wandered. He has since repeated the experiment a couple of times and reports that it has apparently helped increase his productivity.

• Much as they were busy hosing down reports of UFOs in the mid-20th century, a recently declassified document shows the US Air Force drew up plans to build its own flying saucer in the 1950s. Called Project 1794, the plans (which can be seen here) show a disc-shaped craft designed for a vertical take-off and landing which could reach a top speed of Mach 4. A Canadian company was even apparently contracted to build the craft.

• Thousands of people from across the country converged on the small township of Millmerran in Queensland for the Australian Camp Oven Festival last weekend. The biennial event, which was first held in 1999, celebrates life in the bush and its feature events include a camp oven cook-off and damper throwing competition as well as workshops, billy boiling competitions and, of course, sheep shearing demonstrations. For more on the festival, see www.australiancampovenfestival.com.au.

• OK, we’re a little late with this one but we still thought it worth a mention. In celebration of its 50th anniversary in Australia, the Lego company has created a series of Lego constructions depicting 10 great moments in Australian history. The scenes, which were selected following a survey of Lego fans, include everything from Steve Irwin holding his son Bob in one hand while feeding a croc with the other, Cadel Evans winning last year’s Tour de France, the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973 and the praise for the film, The Castle, following its release in 1997. You can see a full gallery of the winners here.

• There’s an image of a headless bride, another of a group of people so blurry you can’t make out who they are, and, of course, images where much of the picture is taken up by fingers placed over the camera lens. UK company Red Cloud, which runs courses in good photography, is looking for Britain’s worst photographer and the gallery of images which have so far been submitted is enough to make anybody cringe. To see for yourself, head to www.redclouddays.co.uk

• More than 1,000 people armed with shovels and ladders took part in the annual Japan All-National Hole Digging Competition near Tokyo earlier this month. Entrants in the competition, now in its 12th year, compete for the Golden Shovel (and a cash prize) with the winners those who can dig the deepest hole in 30 minutes. Prizes are also awarded in other categories, such as the most creative hole and for the most creative costumes worn by the diggers.

• It’s a rug that can make you sick. Scientists in the US are reportedly investigating what they call “sickening rug phenomenon” in which the pattern of a rug can make people exhibit symptoms not unlike those of motion sickness. Dr Frederick Bonato, a psychology professor in New Jersey and lead author of the study, was quoted as saying he was surprised at people experienced symptoms after looking at a rug for only five minutes. “The carpet image was not moving; the people were not moving, but they reported feelings of self-motion and motion sickness,” he said, warning that people should be careful what they buy when looking for a new rug.

• 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.

• The South Pacific island nation of Samoa is reportedly jumping ahead a day in a bid to facilitate better business with neighbours Australia and New Zealand. The country intends jumping the International Date Line, from the east side, where it currently lies, to the west side on 29th December. This will see the country go from being 21 hours behind Sydney to three hours ahead. The move isn’t unprecedented - in 1892 Samoa jumped the dateline to the eastern side in an effort to help business links with the US and Europe.

• The Home Alone house has reportedly gone on the market in the US with an asking price of $US2.4 million. The red brick house in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka was seen in both the 1990 film and its sequel, Home Alone 2. The couple who are selling the house bought it just 18 months before it was spotted by the film’s director John Hughes.

• It took seven years to build and reportedly cost $4.8 million. The world’s largest model airport recently went on display in Germany. The model, based on Hamburg Airport, includes moving vehicles and plans that fly with the use of wires along with 15,000 figurines, 10,000 trees and 500 cars.

• Mr Burns attracted the ire of Springfield’s citizens when he blocked out the sun in The Simpsons. But now come reports of a plan to use artificially created “clouds” to do the same in Qatar, not to extort its citizens for money as was the case with Mr Burns, but to try and keep the ground temperature down during the World Cup in 2022. The mechanical clouds would hover above the stadium in an attempt to deflect some of the sun’s strength during games.

• He’s a real-life transformer. Californian Drew Beaumier - apparently an ardent fan of Transformers when a child - has created a costume, using parts of a children’s toy, that enables him to ‘transform’ into an car. He’s now reportedly hoping to develop the costume to make it available for purchase by mail order.

• As audiences go, it was probably one of the more passive ones. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played to an auditorium filled with potted plants in London this week in an experiment commissioned by TV shopping channel QVC to test the theory that plants grow better when played classical music. The three hour concert apparently included Mozart’s Symphony Number 40.

• Regular visitors might recall reading about Seattle’s Guardian and the existence of ‘Real Life Super Heroes’ in the US some weeks ago. It seems the trend is catching - now comes news of self-appointed ’superheroes’ in the UK. Foremost among them is The Statesman (aka bank worker Scott Cooke), who hits the streets of Birmingham with justice on his mind (and, reportedly, a mobile phone in case things turn nasty). But there are apparently others - as many as 16 according to one report - bearing names such as Black Arrow, Lionheart and the even-more-oddly-monikered, Vague. No word yet on any arch villains.

• Priests were seen hitting the slopes in Poland earlier this month to take part in an annual ski championship for the clergy. With many dressed in clerical robes and collars, they were competing in the Pope John Paul II Cup. The annual event, which includes several different skiing disciplines, was held at the ski resort of Wisla. The former pope was apparently a keen skier and a regular visitor to ski slopes in Italy.

• A selection of some of the oddest spying devices you’ve ever seen has gone on display in an online gallery posted by the CIA Museum on photo-sharing website Flickr. The weird devices developed by the US organisation include everything from a robot fish and a mosquito-like “unmanned aerial vehicle” to a lady’s compact which, if viewed from a certain angle, reveals a hidden code, and a camera designed to be carried by a pigeon.

• It was an unusual idea as far as Valentine’s Day’s gifts go. The Bronx Zoo in New York offered lovers the chance to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach after their beloved for a small donation and more than 5,700 took up the offer for $10, raising more $57,000 to save wildlife around the world. “We are thankful to everyone who believed that naming a roach after a loved one was more romantic than chocolate or roses,” said zoo spokesperson John Cavelli. The zoo, officially known as the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, has more than 58,000 of the roaches living in its Madagascar! exhibit. It says that while the naming opportunity is now closed for this year, they’ll be looking to do it again next year.

• Spectacular natural rock terraces in New Zealand - referred to as the eighth wonder of the world - have reportedly been rediscovered at the bottom of a lake on the North Island. The Pink Terraces had been one of the island nation’s key tourist attractions until they disappeared when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886. Scientists now believe they have found them 60 metres under Lake Rotomahana after sending in underwater vehicles to capture images. The terraces are the largest silica terraces in the world.

• Building a backyard bird house can be a good project to undertake with the kids. A Canadian, however, has taken the craft to the next level, creating a series of bird hotels with one reportedly boasting as many as 103 rooms and a swimming pool. Toronto resident John Looser came up with the idea of building the “extreme birdhouses” after a car accident led to an early retirement and now creates them for a living, selling his hand-made birdhouses (prices range well into the thousands of dollars) and the plans to make them.