monkey pig!

Villagers were shocked after a monkey-like piglet was born in China.

Curious locals flocked to the home of owner Feng Changlin after news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village, Xiping township.

"It's hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!" Feng told Oriental Today.

He says the piglet looks just like a monkey, with two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk.

"But our son likes to play with it, and he stopped us from getting rid of it. He even feeds it milk."

source: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2941186.html

dragon slayer!

In a small, shingled 100-year-old farmhouse near Fowler, Calif., there lives a two-headed bearded dragon lizard.

Zak-n-Wheezie celebrated their first birthday this month, making them possibly the longest-living two-headed bearded dragon lizard on record, and landing owners Barbara and Frank Witte in a "Ripley's Believe it or Not!" cartoon.

When Zak-n-Wheezie were younger, the Wittes laid low to make sure no one searching for an oddity would find their one-in-a-million (actually, statistically speaking, two-in-a-million) pet.

"There were numerous circus-sideshow people looking for me," Barbara Witte says. "But I'm not looking to get them in the sideshow world."

Frank's brother did some research and told the Wittes not to sell Zak-n-Wheezie for anything less than a million dollars — that there were people out there who would pay that much to eat the Wittes' pet.

"There are people who will pay large amounts to eat a two-headed critter. They think it will give them eternal life," says Frank Witte, shaking his head.

The couple say that dragon lizards are cuddly and affectionate and that each has a distinct personality — including the separate heads of Zak-n-Wheezie.

"They are two lizards with one body, not one lizard with two heads," says Frank.

source: http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-petsdragon.artjul12,0,1872309.story?page=1

deep discountage!

Ceri and Rose Williams suffered numbness, head aches and high blood pressure after eating the fruit they purchased in Tesco.



Mr Williams, 52, and his 45-year-old wife had already started munching on the two £1 bags of fruit when they noticed that something was moving inside.

A quick rummage revealed that two spiders, one alive and one dead, had already made a meal out of the Moroccan-grown grapes.

Mr Williams also spotted a cotton wool-like substance - which turned out to be the poisonous arachnid's nest.

Minutes later, Mr and Mrs Williams, who were on holiday in Newquay, Cornwall, fell ill and drove to hospital where doctors told them the fruit they had eaten had been covered in the spider's toxins.

They were monitored closely for several hours and have now made an official complaint to the supermarket in Wadebridge, Cornwall - which has offered to pay them back the £2 cost of the grapes.

Environmental health officers identified the beasts as false widow spiders - Latin name Steatoda nobilis - cousin of the famous Black Widow.



A spokesman for Tesco, said: 'With all the expertise, checks and will in the world it is not always possible to completely legislate for the natural world. It must have been a real scare.'

But Rose added: ''They've offered a £2 refund, which is a bit cheeky considering we were half scared to death.'

source: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1035633/Couple-poisoned-eating-cut-price-supermarket-grapes-tainted-spider-venom.html

slugs!

A "ghost" slug found in a garden in Cardiff has been declared a new species by specialists at the National Museum of Wales and Cardiff University.

They have given the creature a partially Welsh name, Selenochlamys ysbryda, or ghost (ysbryd) slug.

Unlike most slugs, the ghost slug is carnivorous and kills earthworms at night with powerful, blade-like teeth, sucking them in like spaghetti.

It has no eyes or bodily colouring and lives underground.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/7498195.stm

family circus

source: http://bostworld.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/backfire.jpg

Hey Whitey, where's your hat?

A golf club's fairways were turned brown after the groundsman accidentally watered the course with industrial strength weedkiller.



The normally lush fairways have been scorched away after the groundsman sprayed them with a chemical usually used to destroy grass growing through pavements and roads.

A total of 11 holes have been ruined at Haywards Heath Golf Club in West Sussex, and will remain rusty brown for months to come.

Many members, who pay £1,100 a year, fear that prolonged rain could turn them to mud.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2285867/Groundsman-destroys-golf-greens-with-weedkiller.html