Giant banana to float over Texas

Of all the things to happen ! In an expression of artistic commentary on Texas politics, a Canadian artist has a plan to put a giant banana (actually a helium blimp in the shape of a banana) into the sky over Texas.
The plan is to have a $1 million blimp, and a monster blimp at that, 1,000 feet big floating in the atmosophere at a height of over 100,000 feet. This will actually be a test of engineering devices, and if it manages to take off, will remain in the atmospehere for around 1 month.
Read the complete story at Wired.

Man dressed as Joker gets Dutch ID card

In Europe, to get a national ID card, the rules have become more stringent. The rules prohibit grins, funny faces, and head gear. In addition, to avoid confusing scanners that are based on facial recognition, travellers in Europe have been ordered to not look too happy, eyes must be open and clearly visible, no glasses must be worn, and so on. One is supposed to look straight and without any emotion. In the middle of all this, a practical joker managed to beat the system by dressing up as The Joker from the Batman series.
He painted his face, and managed to convince the staff that because of his religious convictions, he could not take off his hat. And he now has a ID card with this very face.



This has now caused a political issue. Read more about this story here.

Woman found from jungle

A family in Cambodia had some good news. A woman who emerged from a jungle a week back was claimed by a family as their long missing daughter. Read the CNN story.
However, where she was upto, what she speaks is all a mystery. Biggest current mystery is that her hair was trimmed short, so if she was lost in a jungle all these years, who was taking care of her ? And it will take some time before she can be claimed to be 'civilized' again.

Man tries to steal gold by swallowing

It sure is difficult for a man to make a honest living nowadays by theft. Modern technology is coming in his way more often. In this story from The Register, a man walked into a jeweller's shop, and asked to see a gold ring for his financee.
When the jeweller turned his back, the man swallowed the ring and denied having the ring. The jeweller, not believing him for one minute, called the police who used a common medical instrument called the X-ray to detect that he did indeed swallow the ring. After a few days, he passed out the ring from his body in the natural way.
Given that the ring was in his body and that he passed it out along with other wastes, the jeweller is not sure whether a customer will be comfortable with buying the ring, so the jeweller will have to sell it to another jeweller.

Bad hiding place

A burglary suspect was caught by the police and was being taken away by the police in their car. Then the fun part starts. He managed to kick out the car window and get away from the car. Still wearing handcuffs, he got away from the police pursuing him and sought safety in a nearby building. It would all have gone according to plan, except for one thing. He somehow missed seeing the big star on the entrace of the building where he sought safety. It was actually a sheriff's office.
A deputy inside the building noticed a man in handcuffs rushing inside and managed to catch him and hold him till the pursuing car police ran in. The burglar now faces an additional charge for attempting to escape. Read the story here.

Committing robbery to get back into prison

People really try their best to get out of jail; so meet this guy who desparately wanted to get back to jail. In an incident that would have astonished bystanders, a man walked into a bank, told the teller that he was robbing her and then told her that he was waiting for the police. He then waited for the police to arrive.
Turns out that this guy had been sentenced some years earlier, spent time in jail and then been released. After he came out, he never did appreciate the life he was leading and wanted to get back to the jail life.

China heralds year of the fluorescent green pig

China has a tradition of naming each year after an animal. The year 2007 is supposed to be named as the Year of the Pig. In a twist (or maybe in a foretaste of what scientists will be able to do), Chinese scientists injected genetic material from a jellyfish into a pregnant sow to produce transgenic pigs. What this means is that there are 3 pigs on the face of the earth which look different under ultraviolet light. The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light. Read this story at CNN.