Loan company requires soul as collateral

A loan company in Latvia is requiring customers to sign their immortal soul as collateral.

Clients have to sign a contract, with the words "Agreement" in bold letters at the top. The client agrees to the collateral, "that is, my immortal soul."

Mirosiichenko said his company would not employ debt collectors to get its money back if people refused to repay, and promised no physical violence. Signatories only have to give their first name and do not show any documents.

"If they don't give it back, what can you do? They won't have a soul, that's all," he told Reuters in a basement office, with one desk, a computer and three chairs.

Wearing sunglasses, a black suit and a white shirt with the words "Kontora" (office) emblazoned on it, he reaches into his pocket and lays out a sheaf of notes on the table to show that the business is serious and not a joke.

Latvia has been the EU nation worst hit by economic crisis.

Unemployment is soaring and banks have sharply reduced their lending, meaning that small companies offering easy loans in small amounts have become more popular.

Mirosiichenko said his company was basically trusting people to repay the small amounts they borrowed, which has so far been up to 250 lats ($500) for between 1 and 90 days at a hefty interest rate.

He said about 200 people had taken out loans over the two months the business was in operation.

Loosing your immortal soul is bad. I know because I read lots of supernatural novels. Better to not risk it.

Parents refuse to reveal their childs gender

A set of Swedish parents have refused to let anyone know what gender their child is.

Pop’s parents [see footnote], both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few – those who have changed the child’s diaper – nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information.

In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction.

“We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”

The child's parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female.

Pop's wardrobe includes everything from dresses to trousers and Pop's hairstyle changes on a regular basis. And Pop usually decides how Pop is going to dress on a given morning.

I think Pop has strange parents. Poor Pop

Man ordered to return head of roadkill deer

A court has ordered a Wisconsin man to return the deer head from roadkill he found on the side of the road.

According to the ruling from the 2nd District Court of Appeals, John Longo found a dead deer on the side of the road near his home in February 2008. He loaded it into his truck, took it home and ate it. He had the deer's head mounted and hung it in his home, court documents show.

Longo, now 69, didn't immediately return a message left at a residential listing for him today.

The state Department of Natural Resources gave Longo a ticket in June 2008 for removing a deer carcass from the road without a permit and fined him $208, according to online court records.

Racine County Circuit Judge Allan B. Torhorst found him guilty in a bench trial, online court records showed.

Torhorst fined him $1 and ordered the DNR to give him a permit if the agency didn't retrieve the head by Halloween 2008, the appeals court ruling said.

The DNR argued Torhorst's order was improper. The DNR's chief attorney, Mike Lutz, said the agency felt the deer belonged to the state and judge couldn't order the agency to issue a permit.

Longo never responded to the DNR's appeal, the ruling said. The appeals court found he had abandoned the case, and it decided to reverse Torhorst's decision.

The appeals court sent the case back to the circuit court with orders that Longo return the head to the DNR immediately.

First, why does the state want the deer head? What are they going to do with it? Second, he found a deer on the side of the road and ATE it? EEW!

Pig survives crash into swimming pool

A pig on the way to the slaughterhouse was saved when it's truck crashed and it flew into a swimming pool.

The pig, a survivor of a June 22 crash involving a truck carrying 90 sows to a processing plant, was discovered Monday by LeAnn Baldy, who lives in an unincorporated neighborhood near the interchange of Interstates 40 and 430, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday.

"It's crazy, it's really crazy," Baldy said. "I'm just shocked. It's cool. Not many people look out their back window and see a pig in their pool."

The pig's death sentence was commuted by Jim Stonehocker, executive vice president for Odom's Tennessee Pride, which had planned to use the truckload of hogs to make sausage products.

"We could not put that into the meat stream," he said. "For a week it has been in the wild. What has happened to it? What has it been in contact with? You need to know what your hog has been eating."

"We believe this hog has earned the right to go and do something else," Stonehocker said. "We're in that process. We don't have it totally resolved."

Maybe he can go live in a petting zoo. That crash saved his life.

Couple gets pet baby giraffe

A Washington couple have brought home a baby giraffe as their new pet.

John and Jane Schreiner said they paid "a large, large sum" for Karson, a baby giraffe born at the Natural Bridge Zoo near Roanoke, Va., and arrived home with the animal Friday after a cross-country drive, The (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review reported Tuesday.

The couple said Karson will live in their Spokane County home for about four months before moving to the 12,000-acre Schreiner Farms ranch, which John Schreiner co-owns with his brother Joe.

"He may be the only giraffe ever to be raised as a pet in Spokane," John Schreiner said.

The ranch already houses three adult giraffes, in addition to zebras, bison and camels.

The couple said they do not believe local officials will have any objection to Karson staying in their home while he grows.

"He's not a carnivore, which is the one concern the county and states are right to control people from raising," John Schreiner said. "I can't see any reason we can't keep him. He's intelligent, gentle and a wonderful creature," he said.

Having a giraffe as a pet just dosen't seem right. What's wrong with a fluffy dog or some nice fish.

Best movie clip ever!

I must get this DVD

Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus

Wallabies irritating farmers by getting high and making crop circles

Just like teenagers! Australian wallabies have been getting high on poppy plants and then creating crop circles.

Tasmania supplies about half of the world's legally-produced opium, which is made from poppies and used to make painkillers like morphine. But, of course, it's important to safeguard the plant, which is used not only in legal painkillers, but also to produce heroin.

Security for the poppy plants was the subject of discussion at a recent parliamentary hearing, which took an unexpected turn when Lara Giddings, attorney general of Tasmania, spoke of a strange discovery.

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Giddings told those assembled. "Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

So ... high wallabies hopping in circles cause the crop-circle phenomenon? Not everyone believes the story, but other animals -- deer and sheep, for example -- have been known to enjoy the poppy plant and act strangely afterward.

The magnificently named Lyndley Chopper, a 30-year poppy-growing veteran and recent retiree, told Australia's ABC News that he'd witnessed odd behavior from area wallabies who'd been in his fields. "They would just come and eat some poppies and they would go away. They'd come back again and they would do their circle work in the paddock," Chopping said.

But the former poppy grower didn't seem concerned about the idea of chemical dependence on the part of the wallabies. "They seem to know when they've had enough," he recalled of his encounters with the small kangaroo relatives. "They'll still be around and they would leave them alone. It's hard to work out. Didn't seem to be any real pattern to their behavior."

Rick Rockliff, operations manager for Tasmania's largest poppy-producing company, told the Mercury that "growers take this very seriously but there has been a steady increase in the number of wild animals and that is where we are having difficulty keeping them off our land."

Whether or not the wallabies are actually to blame for the crop circles, the idea certainly makes for good jokes. "I have seen a stoned wallaby but I don't know about them making crop circles," reader Dijon wrote on a BBC message board on the subject. "The one I saw was slurring his words and asking me for a dollar as he was trying to get the boat to see his brother in New Zealand -- he looked in no mood to be formulating a series of complex agricultural design patterns."

Or, it was space aliens.

Assualt with a deadly cheeto

A Tennessee couple were involved in a domestic altercation with Cheetos.

Warrants filed by Cpl. Kevin Roddy, of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department, stated he responded to a call at a home on Pass Road, where 40-year-old James Earl Taylor and Mary S. Childers, 44, were allegedly involved in an argument.

According to Roddy's report, the pair became "involved in a verbal altercation" with each other "at which time Cheetos potato chips were used in the assault."

"There was evidence of the assault," the report read, "however no physical marks on either party and the primary aggressor was unable to be determined."

I wonder if they had orange marks on them. Are Cheetos made of potatoes, the article calls them potato chips?

Strawberry sausage anyone?

A strawberry festival in Wisconsin will have big competition this year for the best strawberry sausage. Yes, strawberry sausage.

The strawberry brat market at the festival was for years cornered by Hoffmann's Market, but the owner of the business, Dave Hoffmann, retired and closed up his shop in November, leaving three sausage makers scrambling to fill the strawberry brat niche, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday.

Steve Biertzer, a former Hoffman's Market employee who was tapped as his former boss's official successor, will be selling the strawberry bratwurst -- in accordance with his predecessor's recipe

-- at the festival's food court, while two others have announced plans to sell strawberry sausages elsewhere along Washington Avenue during the event.

"The strawberry brat is a novelty available only once a year," Biertzer said. "I'm sure there will be a few copycats on the street, but competition is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes."

I think I'd skip the sausage. Strawberry sausage doesn't sound good to me.

Statue theifs return

A Michigan town is facing a series of statue thefts.

First, it was the yard gnome. Now, it’s a chef wearing a Dooleys T-shirt.

A 7-foot-tall, 50-pound statue of a chef wearing a white Dooleys shirt was snatched from the rear patio of the restaurant, 12141 Hall Rd., police said today.

The restaurant manager told police the theft occurred between 2:30-6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The statue is valued at $300, Lt. Luke Riley said.

Two weeks ago, a red gnome was taken from the front yard of a home in the 35000 block of Doyle. The only clue about its whereabouts was a note left on the front door that stated: “Hi, me and Leroy the deer took a walk to check out the area. Be back in a few days — Gnorman.”

I hope the statues are returned soon, and the thief includes a gift with the statues to pay for the anguish that the statue owners have faced.

Prostitute takes box of chips as payment

An Oklahoma woman accepted a box of chips as payment for her services as a prostitute.

Police said Lahoma Sue Smith, 35, admitted to making the deal with the man, who said he was a Frito-Lay employee.

Officers found Smith and the man, both partially clothed, inside Smith's car.

The man was not charged and his name hasn't been released.

Smith, who police said has a history of prostitution, was fined $1,142 after entering her plea.

I wonder if she got to keep the chips.

Firefighters respond to fire at their own station

Several firefighters in Hawaii were surprised when they got a call to report to a fire: at their own station caused by food left cooking on the stove.

Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said firefighters left food cooking

when they responded to reports of a traffic crash May 22. They received a second call on their way back from the crash to put out a fire at their own station, the Honolulu Advertiser reported Tuesday.

"The firefighters (at the station) are very chagrined about it," Seelig said. "It goes to show that no one is immune."

Seelig said unattended cooking is one of the top causes of fires locally.

"The fire's cause was attributed to unattended cooking," Seelig said. "We, like everybody else, need to be careful and attentive when cooking."

You'd think that firefighters would be more careful about fire safety wouldn't you?

Pigs shut down highway

An Arkansas highway was closed today because of runaway pigs after a trailer accident.

Arkansas State Police say a tractor-trailer rig hauling pigs overturned early Monday on a major highway and some of the four-legged hogs got loose.

The wreck and the roaming porkers closed a stretch of Interstate 430 connecting Little Rock to North Little Rock.

State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said morning commuters were detoured around the area as troopers and others tried to corral the escaped hogs.

The swine could weigh as much as 800 pounds each.

MMMMM pig, delicious.

Man mugged for his sandwich

An Oklahoma man was mugged while waiting for the bus for his bologna sandwich.

Roger Hamilton, 24, told investigators that he was waiting for the bus Wednesday at the Hudson

Street bus station and preparing to put mayonnaise on his sandwich when he noticed a man, described as African-American and in his 30s, staring at him, The Oklahoman reported Friday.

Hamilton said he asked the man if he could help him and the other man responded by punching him in the mouth and running off with the sandwich, which the police report valued at 76 cents.

I could see assaulting someone for a burger or a or sub sandwich but bologna?

Cop pulls gun at McDonalds

A Colorado policeman is in trouble after pulling his gun at a McDonald's employee because it was taking too long to fill his order.

A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department said they plan to present the case -- now classified as a felony menacing incident -- to the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office Thursday for possible filing of criminal charges.

Sources familiar with the case, and the fast food worker's account of what happened, say two off-duty Denver police officers placed an order from their car in the early morning hours of May 21. But once at the drive through window, the employee said the men became agitated and angry at how long their food was taking. The men thought they were being ignored, according to contacts familiar with the worker's account. The male clerk then said one of the officer's flashed his police badge and pointed a pistol through the drive through window in a threatening manner, before driving off without paying.

Someone needs anger management training.

Bear uses doggie door to steal dogfood

A Colorado family was shocked when a bear used their doggie door to enter their home and eat their dogs food.

"Our dog made a strange noise — a combination between a growl and a bark," said Brenda Freeman.

When her husband went to see what was wrong and opened the mud room door, “There was a bear two feet away from him,” she said.

The startled couple shut and locked the mud room door and went into their kitchen where they could look through the window into the mud room window. It was about 10:30 p.m.

The bear explored the mud room for 10 minutes, Freeman said. He did little damage but left paw prints on the window, ate all the dog food that was out and pulled a few herbs growing in pots out of the soil, she said.

“He was very graceful, very calm,” she said. “The bear didn't seem to care about the dog barking.”

She said the couple has lived in their home about five miles from Granby off U.S. Highway 34 for seven years and never had any bear issues. However, about four years ago a mountain lion came close to the house, she said.

That incident eventually prompted the Freemans to add a dog to the family. Aniden is a Turkish Kangal, a breed used to protect sheep from wolves. The 2-year-old dog — whose name is Turkish for “pounce” — weighs about 120 pounds, Brenda said.

She said her husband told her the bear looked like the same one authorities treed for a short time in Granby's Kaibab Park on Thursday, June 11.

"We thought it was quite a coincidence," she said.

Blame the rain

The two incidents in fact may be weather-related, at least indirectly.

“It has to do with kind of the timing of Mother Nature,” said Randy Hampton, Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman.

This time of year, bears generally eat grubs and forbs and by now are gorging on berries. The problem, he said, is that the same rain making the high country look like a Pebble Beach fairway is also prolonging the flowering phase of berry bushes.

So, the berries are not yet available and the bears may be seeking alternative food sources, he said.

Brenda Freeman said the bear left their mud room through the dog door and “played in our fire pit.” She also said a neighbor told her the bear got into their trash.

“We're kind of in their territory; we're in their space,” Freeman said.

She said the family is now securing their trash in the garage and they have moved the dog food from the mud room into the house.

“That should solve their problem,” Hampton said.

That's terrifying. I'm glad everyone was ok and no damage was done. Hopefully they can keep the bear out of their house.