A Little Light Weirdness – 9

First up, apologies if this post contains more typos than usual, I'm sending it from my new ultra-small netbook and I'm still getting used to its itty-bitty keyboard. Which brings me nicely to my first story. That according to a survey for satellite channel SKY-HD, British consumers waste £52 billion a year on hi-tech features they don't use. For example, half of the people polled did not know their high definition television also required a hi-def signal source such as a blu-ray player or HD satellite receiver – like the ones sold by SKY-HD perhaps (Telegraph).

And it's not just the the British, military officials in Russia recently discovered 100 front-line battletanks parked and forgotten by the side of the road near Yekaterinburg in the Urals. Locals say the tanks, which were unguarded and unlocked, have been there for several months and lack only ammunition and the all important starter keys (Reuters).

Someone who might have had a use for those tanks were guests at a wedding in New Delhi in India recently. The Hindu ceremony was somewhat marred when an elephant hired for the event went on a rampage after becoming aroused by the smell of a nearby female in heat. The amorous pachyderm then proceeded to crush 20 limousines, smash through a nearby mall and mount a truck before it could be tranquilised (Orange).

Also losing it this week was the man on the RyanAir flight who found he had won 10,000 euros on a scratchcard he bought on the budget flight from Poland to the UK. Furious that the airline had not seen fit to equip all their planes with the requisite amount of cash onboard, hence he could not be given his prize there and then as he demanded, the unnamed passenger ate the winning card rather than wait to claim it at his destination (BBC News).

An altogether more expensive tantrum was thrown by the Croatian theology student who, without any inkling of irony, took exception to a thorn bush that had pricked him and set fire to it. The burning bush went on to cause £30 million of damage, devastate 500 acres of protected land, and land the hapless student in jail (Orange).

Perhaps he should count himself fortunate not to be charged with copyright theft, Columbia Pictures was not so lucky. The recent disaster movie 2012 includes a shot of the famous statue of Jesus at Rio de Janeiro collapsing under the onslaught of a worldwide disaster, unfortunately for Columbia the work's creator only died in 1961, meaning the work is still in copyright and its current owner, the Brazilian Catholic Church, is not happy (AltAssets.com).

Meanwhile an ocean away the French Catholic Church is similarly up in arms after a group of the faithful set up a “confession hotline” to allow the more devout among them to admit their sins 24x7 for a piddling tithe of just 0.34 euros per minute (the prophets profits go to charity). I can't help wondering if calls are recorded for training perposes (Metro).

(Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)