Flow of Interesting Bits of News--Take 2

Oscar, a hospice cat, strolls through the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I. Employees said he tends to curl up next to patients in their final hours of life, something they've seen him do 25 times. Oscar's home is a facility that treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses. The feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a dementia unit.




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BEHEADED SNAKE BITES MAN
PROSSER, Wash. (Aug. 9) -- Turns out, even beheaded rattlesnakes can be dangerous. That's what 53-year-old Danny Anderson learned as he was feeding his horses Monday night, when a 5-foot rattler slithered onto his central Washington property, about 50 miles southeast of Yakima. Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck. "When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger," Anderson said. "I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose." His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and by the time they arrived at Prosser Memorial Hospital 10 minutes later, Anderson's tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 30 miles to a Richland hospital to get the full series of six shots he needed. The snake head ended up in the bed of his pickup, and Anderson landed in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon. Mike Livingston, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, said the area where the Anderson's live is near prime snake habitat. But he said he had never heard of anyone being bit by a decapitated snake before. "That's really surprising but that's an important thing to tell people," he said. "It may have been just a reflex on the part of the snake." If another rattlesnake comes along, Anderson said he'll likely try to kill it again, but said he'll grab a shovel and bury it right there. "It still gives me the creeps to think that son-of-a-gun could do that," he said.
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German Giants: Breeder Karl Szmolinsky,
here in January, breeds rabbits like this one weighing more than 20 pounds at his farm in Eberswalde, Germany.










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Thai Catfish: Fishermen caught this 646-pounder in the Mekong River in May 2005.











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Mako Shark: An 11-foot shark hangs from the scales at the Destin Fishing Rodeo in Destin, Fla., Saturday. After it was gutted, the 844-pounder still weighed 638 pounds, breaking the tournament's record by 338 pounds.







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The Boeing 727 is still the jet many people imagine when they picture air travel, despite the model's retirement from the skies a few years ago. For decades it was the most popular aircraft in service, and one enterprising person decided to take one of those thousands of grounded craft and turned it into a 24,000-pound limousine. The ... uh ... car is currently based in Chicago, seats up to 50 people, and is street legal thanks to underpinnings from an old Mercedes bus. And, best of all, it can be yours.

The owner has put the thing up on eBay. It has so far received 15 bids with the current price at $269,900, which includes free delivery anywhere in the world.

The owner claims the thing rents out for $40,000 per week, so buying it seems like an economical choice. That is, of course, assuming you have a driveway bigger than most runways.

Would you buy this thing?
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China's Li Jianhua has set world records for pulling a car the longest distance with an ear and lifting the most weight with an ear.

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Lee Redmond of Utah got a spot in the books for fingernails reaching a combined length of 24 feet 7 inches.









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C. Manoharan of India first set a record for swallowing 200 earthworms in 30 seconds. He's also trying to set a record by flossing two snakes through one nostril.









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Jackie Bibby of Texas earned a Guinness title for sitting in a bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes. Bibby broke his previous record by 12 snakes.









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Stadnik is 8 inches taller than the former titleholder, China's Bao Xishun, above. He is 7 feet, 9 inches.










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Liquor: Aztec Passion Limited Edition | Description: 4.4-pound gold and platinum bottle of tequila | From Tequila Ley .925 | Cost: $225,000








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Cocktail: Martini on the Rock | Description: Martini with a diamond | From: Algonquin Hotel in New York |
Cost: $10,000








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Bagel | Description: White truffle cream cheese and goji berry-infused Riesling jelly with golden leaves | From: Westin New York | Cost: $1,000








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Dessert: The Frrrozen Haute Chocolate | Description: A slushy mix of cocoas, milk, edible gold and truffle shavings with a gold spoon and gold goblet with diamonds | From: Serendipity-3 restaurant in New York | Cost: $25,000







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"I swear to be faithful to Cosa Nostra. Should I betray, my flesh will burn." So begins a preamble to a Mafia guidebook of sorts, found in a Sicilian house where Italian authorities recently arrested an alleged top mob boss. Browse through the gallery, below, to learn all of the Mafia's "commandments."








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Deputy C. Neely peers into a soapbox racer Oct. 17 in rural Washington state. "Holy crap, it's a giant toilet!" Neely exclaimed when she recovered it from the side of the road. The racer had been stolen in Seattle.







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A 21,000-square-yard banner ad from Sorouh Real Estate the world's largest, according to Guinness World Records. It sits on the grounds of the Dubai, United Arab Emirates, international airport in this photo released Oct. 23.







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A huge crocodile made of a variety of gourds sits
on display on a farm in Hartheim-Feldkirch, Germany, Oct. 24.










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Mark Friga holds his dog Olivia before the WKEY Pet Masquerade Contest in Key West, Fla., Oct. 24.










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This photo, auto-snapped in a Pennsylvania forest,
was released by hunter Rick Jacobs in October. Some speculate that the creature could be a Sasquatch (or bigfoot), but others say it's just a bear with a bad skin infection.








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A man dressed as a portable toilet parades on a New York street Oct. 30 as part of an ad campaign for a portable bathroom and toilet company.








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A worker sets up an exhibit for the Day of the
Dead celebration in Mexico City Nov. 1. The
structure mimics an Aztec display of the skulls of sacrificed people.







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Paramilitary policemen exercise on parallel bars during a training session at a military base in Baokang, China, Nov. 5.








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October 30, 2007—A new Hubble image offers the most detailed view yet of a pair of galaxies entwined in a graceful dance 300 million light-years away. The image reveals fine structures that couldn't be seen when the pair was first cataloged in the 1960s. Collectively known as Arp 87, the galactic dancers are distorted by gravity as they swing past each other. The larger of the two, known as NGC 3808 (right), trails an "arm" of stars, dust, and gases that wraps around its companion. Interacting galaxies like Arp 87 are known to have some of the universe's highest rates of star formation.
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Edinburgh, Scotland, October 29, 2007—An amateur enthusiast has uncovered the first Roman tombstone to be found in Scotland in more than 170 years. Larney Cavanagh recently came across the red sandstone artifact at the edge of a field in Carberry, near the town of Inveresk, announced National Museums Scotland on Monday. Only 13 Roman tombstones have ever been found in Scotland. The new find dates to between A.D. 140 and 180 and was erected for Crescens, a mounted bodyguard for the governor of Britain, according to the inscription shown here. The missing upper portion probably depicted a cavalryman, while the intact lower half shows a naked barbarian, presumably dead, the institution said. "It is very rare to find Roman tombstones, and this is the first time we have found evidence of the governor's bodyguard in Scotland," Fraser Hunter, principal curator of Roman archaeology at National Museums Scotland, said in a statement. "This stone is an unexpected window onto our Roman past, and we can tell from it than Crescens was a well-respected and important man." The artifact is currently being examined in the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.
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November 8, 2007—The battle for the most-tilted-tower title has gotten downright medieval, with a 13th-century German church flattening the circa-1372 Leaning Tower of Pisa's record, Guinness World Records announced this week. Compromised by a wooden foundation and sodden soil, the Suurhusen church's 15th-century steeple addition tilts at a 5.07-degree angle, versus the Italian tower's current 3.97 degrees, according to Olaf Kuchenbecker of Guinness World Records' German office. The ornate 185-foot-tall (56-meter-tall) Pisa edifice, though, would tower over the 84-foot-tall (26-meter-tall) village landmark.
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Schleswig, Germany, September 18, 2007—A curator prepares a mummy preserved in marshland at the Archaeological Museum of Castle Gottorf. The body will be part of the exhibition "Mummies-The Dream of Eternal Life," which will begin on September 30 at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim, Germany. The exhibit is slated to display the "Windeby Girl" bog buddy, mummies from Egypt and Peru, and preserved animals.

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Ever since Irena and Chuck Schulz posted a video of their cockatoo, Snowball, rocking out to the 1997 hit "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," their phone won't stop ringing with requests for interviews. But the Indiana couple says they are fine with that because it brings attention to their rescue shelter for unwanted and neglected birds.