J.A. Getzlaff
Daredevil jumps from Pisa's Leaning Tower
Italian police are still looking for the suspect.
What’s it like to leap off Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa?
A Norwegian BASE jumper — BASE stands for buildings, antennae, spans and earth, the four fixed objects from which BASEjumpers parachute — claims to know.
According to the Associated Press, a “mystery skydiver” dived off the
cylindrical tower earlier this month, but ran away before monument workers
could catch him. Authorities aren’t convinced the Norwegian jumper is actually the figure who jumped.
The precarious tower, which dates from the 12th century, has been closed
since 1990 because it is in danger of collapsing.
Arne Aarhus, the 24-year-old Norwegian who said he pulled the stunt, did not seem overly concerned about becoming road pizza or destroying a building that goes back to the Middle Ages. He was more excited about the reaction he got. He told Oslo’s Verdens Gang newspaper, “People were stunned and then there was total chaos.”
Because he wanted a picture of himself in front of the tower, Aarhus said he
and his accomplice returned an hour after he jumped. He boasted, “People
were still standing there pointing upwards, while police collected their statements.”
The tower’s officials weren’t as amused as Aarhus. They have been working
arduously to save the structure, and just last year were able to slow down
its sinking rate, which had been increasing with each passing year.
So did Aarhus undo all of their hard work? If so, perhaps the Italians
should ask him for that extra $4 million they need to finish the
restoration.
Wave rage
Some Aussie surfers are attacking tourist "kooks" for stealing their breaks.
When traveling in the USA, the land of the automobile, one must be wary of road rage. Down Under, in the land of surfing, one must be careful of wave rage. According to a recent BBC report, several of Australia’s most popular surfing breaks have become battlegrounds between locals and tourists. And the locals are winning.
Here’s the scoop: Young travelers, usually male, show up, take one look at those long, beautiful breaks and, before you can say “Don’t forget your rash guard,” they’re in the water, paddling to catch the wave of their dreams.
Continue Reading CloseKenyan schoolchildren take over town
Outraged by a classmate's death, hundreds go on a "drunken rampage."
It all started with a pencil. On Monday, a 9-year-old student of the James Gichuru School in Dandora, a suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, dropped his pencil on the road near his school. When he bent down to pick it up, the speeding driver of a matatu — a public minibus — hit and killed the boy.
The child’s classmates, incensed by their friend’s death and the lack of speed bumps in the area, banded together with kids from other area schools and went on a “drunken rampage,” according to a Reuters report.
Continue Reading CloseBlack magic woman?
A court sentences a United Arab Emirates woman to four months in jail for casting a spell.
In the United Arab Emirates, a teacher and former housewife is spending four months in jail for putting a bad mojo on her former husband and his sister, according to a recent Reuters report.
The woman, angry with her ex-spouse for divorcing her, went to the country next door, Oman, where she hired a magician to conjure up a nasty spell for her former beloved and his sibling.
Apparently, the spell worked. At least psychologically. The man and his sister soon came down with a number of undiagnosed illnesses, which they attributed to the ex-wife’s black magic. Believing they were possessed by demons, they sought retribution in court — and won. The ex-wife was promptly whisked off to jail.
Recently, however, she was granted an appeal from a court in Sharjah, which informed the Gulf News that the “physical and psychological ailments” of the man and his sibling had no correlation with the ex-wife’s visit to the magician.
The newspaper also said that it is common for Arab women to visit magicians in times of need — as in “I need that Mercedes” or “I need you to come down with a rare and unsightly skin disease.” Hey, maybe they’ve got something there.
Artichoke power!
Spanish villages plan to burn giant veggies for electricity.
In two years, the northern Spanish towns of Villabilla de Burgos and Alcala de Gurrea will be running on artichokes. No kidding!
According to a Reuters report, the towns plan to burn giant, 10-foot-high artichokes at their twin power stations to convert the thorny vegetables to electricity.
Ten-foot-high artichokes? Yup. Spanish farmers, with a little financial help from European Union subsidies and the towns’ electricity generator, have been raising genetically modified “monster vegetables” with 23-foot-long roots. These larger-than-life artichokes may be unfit for human consumption, but once burned, they will provide the power to supply Villabilla de Burgos’ and Alcala de Gurrea’s 60,000 residents with electricity.
Continue Reading CloseMugged by a serpent?
Thieves in New Delhi, India, use snakes to hold up victims.
That money belt tucked under your shirt isn’t going to do much good if you happen to be held up by a certain type of thief in India’s capital.
According to a BBC report, a group of New Delhi muggers have taken up an ingenious new weapon — snakes. Yes, snakes.
The scheme works like this: A criminal approaches an unsuspecting citizen and places a python around her neck. The python begins to squeeze, and voil` — the victim gives up her money in return for breath and life.
In another popular ruse, a man is approached by a “snake charmer” who threatens him with a hissing asp: Give up the jewelry or risk a poisonous snake bite. Guess which wins.
Many of these robberies have occurred in the light of day, prompting Delhi police to warn the public to “stay clear of snake charmers and people carrying serpents.”
Aye, aye.
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