A research group at Georgia Tech paid volunteers to fall down a flight of stairs so they could observe how a body tumbles. Each participant received $15.00. It wasn’t specified if the payment was taxable or not.

The Italian artist, Bellini, was painting the scene of Salome carrying the head of John the Baptist but just couldn’t get it right. The Sultan of Turkey, who had commissioned the painting, quickly obliged and summoned up a decapitated head on a platter so Bellini could get it right. Bellini quickly left and never finished the painting.

The Houston Zoo had a problem with one particular brand of snake on exhibit...they kept on dying. So, they solved the problem...the snake "on display" is a fake- made of rubber. No wonder it doesn’t move.

In Java, where the rat population is alarmingly high, a unique method was tried. Rats were caught and their anus were sealed so that they couldn’t defecate. The "clogged" rats soon began to take their torment out on the other rats and viciously attacked them. It’s reported that over 20,000 rats a week were killed by the "stuffed" rats. And you thought constipation would just make you grouchy.

In London, women protestors broke windows and fought police, even injuring some of them. What were the protectors demonstrating against? Violence. But of course, they probably meant other people’s violence.

You wouldn’t want to live in these houses. A woman died in Newport Beach, CA and when authorities arrived, they found the body buried under garbage...literally. A police officer said that the level throughout the house was at least 3 feet and up to 6 in some areas. After hauling it out, it was estimated to be over 5 tons of garbage. In Schenectady, NY, police were summoned to a house that had so many cockroaches in it that stepping on the floor would sink your foot ankle deep in the cockroaches. The walls were so full that the cockroaches had no place to go but outside the house.

A man in Philadelphia must have had the nine lives of a cat. First, his car slammed into a utility pole (1), then the car went down an embankment that was nearly 20 feet deep (2), and then he crashed into a fence (3). Since the man was over 60, he used up some of the nine previously...and it must have been six because after walking away from those three accidents in fine shape, he was accidentally killed by a passing motorist.

A man was arrested in Van Nuys, CA for forging checks. He was released when he was allowed to post bail to the tune of 1,500.00. You guessed it...that check was a forgery as well.

In Pennsylvania, a young girl was watching television when suddenly the house was attacked by a group of deer, which came right into the house and caused considerable damage. Unfortunately for the girl, her father wasn’t there to protect her…he was on a deer-hunting trip.

People will ask God for the strangest of things. An avid anti-abortionist preacher in California wanted a new Supreme Court Justice to replace William Brennan. So, he asked his parishioners to pray that Brennan would die. You know, eventually the prayer would come true. Eventually.

A driver on a freeway in Ohio went out of control and crossed lanes, hitting another car. The man was rushed to the hospital, as was the other driver. Unfortunately, getting a ride home was going to be difficult as the driver he struck was his wife in their other car.

In Ireland, an elderly man was watching as a grave was being dug for his dearly departed brother. When the dirt of the grave started to fall into the gravesite and endanger the gravedigger, the elderly man reached down to help. However, the headstone fell on top of him and killed him. It is unknown if the cemetery gave a two for one discount.

A Detroit man who was shot was brought into court to identify the assailant. He walked over to the defendant and punched him in the face. The prosecutor promptly asked the court to record that the compliant has just identified the assailant.

The Freedom of Information Act is really a good thing, but sometimes it can go overboard. In the late 1980’s, 16,000 citizens had requested information on the supercollidor project, which was being bid on by a number of states. However, instead of sending out a summary sheet, the U.S. Department of Energy sent out the entire statement to each person...all 8,800 pages that weighted 25 pounds. Now....that’s information!

A performing swordsman wanted to prove that he actually swallowed real swords. Asking for a volunteer from the audience to check the authenticity of the sword, the volunteer immediately stabbed the performer with it. It was real and so was the blood.

It happens occasionally that two companies will merge and conditions will be set up to protect the employees from being laid off. Such was the case with a railroad merger in Minnesota. So, although a group of men were considered "excess" and had nothing to do, they could not be laid off. So, each day for eight hours the men would sit in a room. Of course, company regulations didn’t allow them to read, sleep, or play cards "on the job" so the men had to do nothing to collect their paycheck.

When cold weather hits warm weather climates, odd things happen. At the Gator Bowl in 1989 (in Jacksonville, Fl), a cold front was expected to move in. So, the weekend prior to the game, 23 people were hired to spend the entire weekend flushing toilets to prevent them from freezing up. The stadium has over 500 toilets.

Muammar Qaddafi must really like the Ten Years After song, "I Love to Change the World". When England closed the Libyan embassy in London, the ruling Qaddafi ordered that all Libyan maps remove England. Thus, Scotland and Wales are completely surrounded by water where England used to be.

It is proven that sometimes you can have it both ways. A light skinned black woman in Virginia sued her company because of racial discrimination in the 1980’s. Claiming polices were against blacks, she said it put her at a disadvantage. Years later, when affirmative action was implemented, she filed another lawsuit, this time because it discriminated against her as she was part white.