Fun_People Archive
3 Mar
Weirdness #367

Date: Fri,  3 Mar 95 13:06:58 PST
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weirdness #367

Excerpted-from: WEIRDNUZ.367 (News of the Weird, February 17, 1995)
By: Chuck Shepherd

* According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Muslim sect
Tehrik-a-Nifaz in Pakistan declared in May that proper Muslims should reject
the government's traffic rules and begin driving their cars on the right
side of the road.  Since everyone else in Pakistan drives on the left side,
there were so many serious accidents that two weeks later, the sect was
forced to rescind the decree. [San Francisco Chronicle, 6-9-94]

* Cockpit transcripts of the March crash of the Aeroflot jet in Siberia,
released in September, show that the pilot's 16-year-old son and 12-year-old
daughter were constantly playing with the controls during the flight.  One
of the last communications was of the girl, asking, "Daddy, can I turn
this?" [St. Petersburg Times- AP, 9-28-94]

* In August, Harry Finley opened the Museum of Menstruation in the basement
of his Hyattsville, Md., home, according to a report in Washington City
Paper, and set up displays of 20th century feminine hygiene products and
advertisements.  Finley, who explains his obsession only by saying that he
finds menstruation interesting, plans a Kotex retrospective for 1995.
[Washington City Paper, 9-30-94]

* In September Professor Malcolm Wilkins of Glasgow University told a
conference at Loughborough University in England that vegetarians are cruel
to plants.  "Plants are sensitive organisms," he said, claiming that some
plants emit crackling noises (inaudible to humans) when they need water.
Wilkins said he is especially annoyed at vegetarians who "don't like animals
being killed.  I say to them, 'You are perfectly happy to slice up a tomato
or cucumber.  Where is your logic?'"[Chicago Tribune- Reuters, 9-10-94]

* Albert Cohen of Troy, N. Y., was awarded a patent in October for an
artificial arm to be attached to desk, floor, or wall and which is designed
primarily to be struck by sports fans in need of giving someone a high-five
when their favorite team enjoys momentary success. [Albany Times Union,
11-16-94]

* University of Washington astrophysicist Dr. Bruce H. Margon, quoted by
the New York Times on the continuing inability of science to measure or
infer what the "blackness" in space is, even though, by its properties, they
know it must be matter:  "It's a fairly embarrassing situation to admit that
we can't find 90 percent of the universe." [New York Times, 11-29-94]

Copyright 1995, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved.
Released for the entertainment of readers.  No commercial use may
be made of the material, or of the name News of the Weird.

© 1995 Peter Langston