Drive-in weddings

Next month, over 35 couples will tie the knot at a motor rally in Sweden. Ten priests will be present to officiate at the event - each wedding will take approximately seven minutes.

The Drive-In Weddings are the brainchild of a priest, who wants to make weddings, "simpler and more down to earth," as well as to show that the Church of Sweden, "can take part in celebration and happiness and not just in crisis and catastrophes."

The happy couples will exchange vows under a red neon sign reading 'Get Married', to the sounds of a gospel choir and a priest singing Elvis songs!

Always look down before sitting on the loo

The resident of a 10th floor apartment in Darwin, Australia, was shocked when he went to the toilet... and found a 1.8m python curled up in the toilet bowl.

It is thought that the snake, probably a runaway pet, had travelled up the sewage pipes, to emerge at its highrise resting place.

sixth foot a fake

Forensic scientists have revealed that the latest 'foot' found washed up in British Columbia earlier this week, was in fact made up of animal bones and flesh stuffed into a shoe. Police say that the shoe was filled in such a way to fool the finder into thinking that it was human.

Sixth foot washes up in Canada

The mystery of the floating feet deepened yesterday when a sixth foot was washed up on the shores of British Columbia, Canada. Like the other five feet that have been found in the area over the previous 11 months, the latest was clad in a running shoe, and appeared to have been in the water for some time.

Only one foot (the fifth) - which was found on Monday this week - was a left foot.

Investigations are still underway, but for now, where the feet came from, and who they belonged to, remains an enigma.

a piglet with a fear of mud...

Fans of Charlotte's Web will get a kick out of a video from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/7448006.stm

It features 'Cinders', a six-week old piglet that suffers from a rather unfortunate condition - she's afraid of mud!

Luckily, the farmer's daughter had the perfect solution to the problem - a pair of toy Wellington boots. Now Cinders can wander happily around in the mud without getting her trotters dirty!

The lovable hog has something else to celebrate too... whilst her siblings might end up as sausages, Cinders has been adopted as a mascot by the farmer, who has promised that she will be able to, "live a long and happy life."

A rare form of epilepsy, triggered by music

This month's Scientific America has an article about a woman called Stacey Gayle who had seizures when she listened to certain types of music.

Gayle was only 22, when she started to exhibit symptoms of this extremely rare (only 150 cases on record) form of epilepsy. Over the next three years, the seizures came and went. Tests proved inconclusive. No one had any idea what caused them. Then, one day, she noticed that every time a certain song came on the radio, she ended up having a 'fit' on the floor.

After subjecting her to a battery of tests in hospital, the doctors concluded that the sole cause of her seizures was music. Unfortunately for the music lover and chorister, the only 'safe' choices were jazz and classical - neither of which she was fond of.

Soon the situation had become so bad that even a snatch of a song from a telephone ring tone or an advertising jingle could cause her to collapse. Normal life became impossible. Medication had no effect. After months of soul searching, she agreed to try brain surgery to try to fix the problem.

Again, she went back to the testing unit in the hospital. This time they recorded exactly what areas of her brain were involved when she had a seizure, then, in separate tests put sections of her brain 'to sleep' to see what might happen, eg to her memory and speech etc, if they were removed.

Then, once the doctors were sure that the surgery would cause no devastating loss of function, they very precisely removed an egg sized portion of her brain. Luckily, the operation, which only 4 people with musicogenic epilepsy have ever had, was a complete success, and Gayle has begun to live a normal life once more.

When it's safer to eat off a toilet, than at your desk

A 'Which?' consumer survey conducted in a typical London office last month, revealed that many computer keyboards are covered with germs.

Researchers even found one particular keyboard with a bacteria count five times higher than that of a toilet in the same office!

Dropping crumbs into the keyboard, and poor personal habits such as not washing hands after going to the toilet, are thought to be the main contributing factors to bacterial growth.

Experts urged all users to clean their computer mouse and keyboards more often, to reduce the chance of falling prey to bacterial illnesses such as stomach upsets and diarrhoea.

Courtroom sudoku surprise

An ongoing trial in Sydney, Australia, was dismissed without a verdict after the judge noticed that jury members were concentrating a bit too hard... on their sudoku puzzles.

The trial, which Reuters reports has cost taxpayers A$1 million to date, had to be disbanded when it was revealed that up to five of the jurors had been busy playing, rather listening to the evidence.

Reports in the Australian Press say one juror claimed that the numerical puzzles helped them to, 'pay more attention by keeping their mind busy'. They were rumbled when the judge noticed that several of the jurors appeared to be 'taking notes' vertically instead of horizontally.

A new trial will probably be called in the coming few weeks.

Saucy undies leave thieves exposed

In this age of stay up stockings, and fake tans, is pantyhose becoming more difficult to find in the shops...?

A pair of thieves became infamous in Colorado, USA, recently, when they robbed a shop wearing women's g-strings (or thongs) over their faces, rather than a mask - or the more common disguise - a pair of 'natural tan' coloured pantyhose.

Unfortunately, the racy undies, which were designed to be revealing, exposed rather too much of the men's faces, for them to remain anonymous. The 'thong bandits' as they were nicknamed, turned themselves in, when CCTV pictures of their exploits were broadcast across Colorado.

It turns out that not only were the men wearing blue and green g-strings respectively, they carried their booty away in a neon pink rucksack. Perhaps the local branch of Victoria's Secrets should do a stock check too.

Don't touch, or I'm gonna call my owner...

Did you know that you can now buy software from a company called Gadget Trak (http://www.gadgettrak.com/) which can help you track down lost or stolen electronic gizmos such as mobile phones, laptops, Blackberrys, USB memory sticks, iPods etc?

The software, once loaded, lies silent and hidden (no continuous monitoring leading to possible invasion of privacy), springing into action only when required. For example, as soon as an unauthorised SIM card is inserted into a mobile phone, the software silently begins to send SMS messages to pre-arranged phone numbers (eg that of your spouse or your company). The information sent will include the mobile phone number of the new user, as well as the location of the mobile phone.

On a Mac laptop, the software even activates the built in camera and sends you the photo of the unauthorised user along with the location information, as soon as it connects with a wireless network.

The best thing is, because the software works completely silently, the thief doesn't even realise the game is up... unless, or until, a policeman comes knocking at the door.

Gadget Trak isn't the only company that specialises in an electronic call back system - a recent report on Reuters tells the story of a woman who lost her digital camera in a restaurant. Luckily, she was using an SD memory card made by a company called Eye-Fi, which is designed to upload the photos to your home computer or an online service, every time it links onto a familiar wireless network.

Imagine her surprise when she got home, sans camera, and turned on her computer, only to discover that the Eye-Fi card had downloaded both her holiday pics and photos of the light-fingered duo. Apparently they had decided to celebrate their find prematurely, by snapping photos of themselves...

Miscreants watch out, Big Brother is watching!

Put your money where your melon is

CNN reports that a Japanese businessman who wants 'to support local agriculture', has set the record for the most expensive watermelon ever bought. He paid an eyepopping US$ 6,125 or HK$47,775 for the 8kg, black-skinned Densuke watermelon.

The Densuke, which is only grown on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, is prized because of its scarcity - only a few thousand are harvested every year.

When brushing your teeth isn't a good idea

Although it's been common knowledge for a while that fruit juices and smoothies are not all that good for your teeth (because they typically contain lots of sugar and acid), some dentists are now telling patients NOT to brush their teeth after indulging in a fruity treat.

The reason, they say, is because brushing hastens the erosion of the enamel that has has been weakened by the acidic juice. Instead, they are urging fruit fans to brush before they have their drink.

I guess that drinking a glass of water, and, in the process swilling out the sugary residue, may be the best way to go.

Fake bus stops help nursing homes

The UK's Telegraph reports that a nursing home in Dusseldorf, Germany, has come up with an innovative idea to keep wandering Alzheimer patients from getting lost. They have put a fake bus stop outside their front door.

Although Alzheimer sufferers have very poor short term memories, many can still retain some long term memories - such as what a bus stop looks like, and what its function (ie to attract a bus to take them home) is. Apparently, many of the patients who wander out of the nursing home spot the bus stop and wait for the non-existent bus to arrive, rather than walking away and getting lost.

Now, when one of their patients go missing, instead of calling the police, staff check the bus stop. The director of the home poignantly reveals that more often then not, their escapee charges find it hard to recall why they were waiting for the bus in the first place, and can be tempted back inside by the promise of a coffee.