Funny But True News Stories #6 - An ongoing series

[totalmotorcycle]

Man wins lotto suit




MADRID, Spain (AP) - A Spaniard has won a six-year court battle to claim the equivalent of about $50,000 US from a winning lottery ticket that went through a washing machine and came out in pieces.

The organization running the lottery, the National Organization of Blind Spaniards, had refused to pay out on grounds the pieces might stem from a scam - a bunch of tickets washed intentionally and then snippets put together to look like a ticket with the winning five-digit number.

But a Madrid court ruled Thursday that plaintiff Miguel Carnerero, who bought the ticket in a bar in 1999 in the Basque city of Vitoria, had not done anything dodgy.

It said microscopic analysis of the edges of the pieces he presented showed they matched up perfectly and it would be "almost impossible" for them to have come from different tickets.

[totalmotorcycle]

DUI charges blamed on chocolates
ananova.com




ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - A Newfoundland man convicted for driving under the influence blamed it all on liquor-filled chocolates.

Allen Bottomley, 67, of King's Cove, Nfld., told the judge he'd eaten too many of the sweets before being stopped by police last fall. The judge didn't bite and sentenced him to six months in jail.

Bottomley faced two charges of driving under the influence in separate incidents in September and November of last year.

RCMP said his blood alcohol level was approximately twice the legal limit when he was pulled over on both occasions.

Const. Tony Seaward said Bottomley also had three previous convictions for impaired driving resulting in the loss of his licence for eight years.

Seaward said it doesn't matter how the alcohol is consumed, it's still illegal to get behind the wheel while impaired.

[totalmotorcycle]

Wildfire started by cow dung
ananova.com/




LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) - Authorities are investigating whether Forest Service workers can be charged with arson for a 365-hectare wildfire that was ignited after gusty winds carried flaming cow dung outside a controlled burn site.

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said he received several complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area, where the Forest Service was conducting a controlled burn of prairie weeds March 11.

Callers complained the fire shouldn't have been set because of high winds and the fire endangered farm property.

The sheriff's office this week agreed to investigate. District Ranger Steve Currey said Forest Service officials also are investigating.

Currey said the Forest Service will have to replace 14 power poles and a fence damaged in the fire.

[totalmotorcycle]

Bronze Age perfume 'discovered'
By Tabitha Morgan BBC News, Nicosia




Scented oils commanded high prices in the ancient world
A team of Italian archaeologists working in Cyprus believes it has discovered the site of an ancient perfume factory from the Bronze Age.

The 4,000-year-old perfumery is thought to have manufactured fragrances for export across the Eastern Mediterranean.

The factory looks to have formed part of a complex of buildings - a sort of Bronze Age industrial estate.

It included an olive press, a winery and a copper smelting works.

Scientists have reconstituted 12 different perfumes from traces of scents found in dozens of clay bottles at the site.

So far, they have extracted essences of laurel, cinnamon and myrtle - all likely to have been derived from local plants, and then mixed with olive oil.


The factory is thought to have been part of a complex

The scale of the site, and the presence of huge 500-litre oil-storage jars, suggests it was the centre of a prosperous export business.

It is thought that Crete may have been the ancient world's main market for Cyprus perfume.

Scented oils were used extensively for religious ceremonies and funerary rites and often commanded very high prices.

According to the Roman historian Pliny, Cyprus was the earliest source of some of the most popular perfumes in the ancient world.

Archaeologists believe that the earthquake which destroyed the complex also played a part in preserving many of its artefacts.

[totalmotorcycle]

Pet store owner: Satan's image on turtle's shell
Monday, March 21, 2005 - thanks to CNN.com

Image CNN.com

The shell of Lucky is shown in Michigantown, Indiana.



MICHIGANTOWN, Indiana (AP) -- A turtle that was the only survivor of a pet shop fire may have emerged with a hellish memento.

The palm-sized red-eared slider turtle, named Lucky, was the only animal to survive a fire last October at Dora's A-Dora-ble Pet Shop in nearby Frankfort, about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Owner Bryan Dora now says he sees an image of Satan's face on the critter's shell. He can spot lips, eyes, a goatee, shoulders and a pair of pointy horns on Lucky's back.

"The marking on the shell was like the devil wanted us to know he was down there," Bryan Dora said. "To me, it's too coincidental that the only thing to come out unscathed would have this image on it."

The image was not visible before the fire and Dora speculates the intense heat might have caused the shell's color to change. The turtle is healthy and there was no change in its behavior, he said.

The cause of fire that destroyed nine businesses or offices in the 1912 building in downtown Frankfort has not been determined.

"Turtles can hold their breath quite awhile," Dora said. "He may have taken one breath just before and held it through the fire. Except that the fire went on and on for hours."

[totalmotorcycle]

Swiss to wrap glaciers in foil
ananova.com/




Swiss authorities are planning to wrap mountain glaciers with tin foil this summer in an effort to stop them melting.

Carlo Danioth, head of mountain rescue services in Andermatt, said: "We will initially cover around 30,000 square feet on the upper Gurschen glacier at the beginning of May as a test."

Scientists hope that the high-tech foil will prevent the sun's rays from melting the ice in popular ski resorts during the summer months.

Glacier expert Martin Funk said: "The foil reflects almost all the sun's rays. That will sharply reduce the rate of melting."

And other resorts like Saas-Fee and Titlis and some Austrian glaciers have said that they plan to test similar schemes this summer.

Environmental groups have criticised the £45,000 plan at Andermatt as "absurd".

Raimund Rosewald, head of a landscape protection foundation, said: "We cannot stop the glaciers melting using foil."

[totalmotorcycle]

Doll mistaken for alien
ananova.com/




A burnt rubber doll was mistaken for a badly injured alien and taken to a hospital in Brazil.

It happened after people in Aracruz found a burnt 'body' on the ground after seeing a fireball fall from the sky.

A police spokesman told Terra Noticias Populares: "Many people were terrified thinking that an alien invasion was taking place.

"They thought the doll was a burnt ET and more than 50 people called the station."

The 'alien' was taken to the local hospital where doctors soon confirmed it was a burnt rubber doll.

A hospital spokesman said: "It was obviously a practical joke but we wonder who would do that in such a small and quiet town."

[totalmotorcycle]

Sleepwalker mows lawn naked
ananova.com


A sleep-walking computer expert was caught by his wife mowing the lawn naked at 2am.

Rebekah Armstrong told The Sun she was woken by a noise coming from the garden.

When she realised husband Ian was not in bed she went downstairs to see what was happening.

Rebekah said: "Ian was mowing the lawn completely starkers. I dread to think how long he'd been there but he'd nearly finished.

"I was going to wake him but I have always been told it can be dangerous to disturb someone who is sleepwalking.

"In the end I just unplugged the mower, went back to bed and let him get on with it."

Ian, 34, later got back into bed and didn't believe Rebekah when she told him what he'd been up to.

Rebekah added: "It wasn't until I told him to look at the soles of his feet that he finally believed me - they were filthy."