A Little Light Weirdness - 4

Widely reported, but still worth a mention. A group of Rabbis have been flying over Israel this week, chanting prayers and blowing shofars (a wind instrument made from a ram's horn) in an effort to keep swine-flu from crossing the border. Though some may question their sanity, there is no doubting their confidence in their faith, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri told an Israeli newspaper "we are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us." Israeli authorities are less sure, however, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that the Israeli government will buy enough vaccine for the entire population, once it's developed (BBC News).

And who says the education system is "dumbing down"? Certainly not councillors from the UK city of Manchester, who have just started awarding qualifications in getting on a bus. The certificate in "Using Public Transport (Unit 1)" requires that the awardee demonstrate the ability to "walk to the local bus stop", "stand or sit at a bus stop and wait for the arrival of a public bus" and "sit on the bus and observe through the windows". Presumably then, not getting a window seat is an automatic fail (Telegraph).

Also, when it comes to weird crime, Australians top all the rest at theft, according to a New Zealand news site. Among the list of weird things stolen in neighbouring Oz, six horses tails - from the horses, an entire grove of olives in a single night (the farmer estimates the harvest would take 18 man-days to pick), blow-up sex dolls - which were then inflated, used and abandoned, bronze testicles from a statue of a bull, and women's pubic hair, which the thief obtained by rummaging through passengers' luggage in his capacity as a Qantas baggage handler (TVNZ).

Some people are still honest, however. Among them is 83 year-old Iris Chadwick, who borrowed the musical score to Rose Marie from a London library just prior to the outbreak of the second world war, and forgot about it in the ensuing confusion. Seventy years on and Iris' conscience finally got the better of her, so she has at last returned the overdue item to the library. Fortunately the Tower Hamlets Council, who now run the facility, has waived late fees on the book, which would otherwise have come to over $4000 (BBC News).

Morgenrot

This video is pretty weird on its own terms. But an added strangeness: all the manipulated images are "found art" from the Library of Congress.