Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes as man takes oath

In a bizarre incident, a man in eastern China was struck by lightning just as he lifted an iron bar over his head to swear that god would punish him if he had taken money from his friend.

The man, who was identified as Xu, had borrowed 500 yuan (US$73.21) from a close friend surnamed Huang three years ago. Xu, who lived in Fuqing City, Fujian Province, later forgot all about it, according to a news Web portal in Fujian.

Pumpkin

Satire: McCain Speechwriter Trying To Write Lines That Don't Lead To Creepy Smile

Phoenix, AZ - According to campaign sources, Joseph Chappel, a 38-year-old speechwriter for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has spent the last two weeks attempting to combine words and phrases in such a way as to not provoke a tight-jawed, dead-eyed smile from the presidential hopeful.

McCain smile
©Unknown
The McCain 'smile'

Smiley

Flashback How Do You Get Out Of An EBay Auction? Say Killer Bees Attacked The Vehicle



Killer bees attack
©Unknown

Pat won an auction for an RV on eBay last week. He bid a little over $15,000 for a vehicle that was listed for sale by the RV company for $29,999 on other sites. Pat was worried that Nelson's RV might try to find a loophole to cancel the auction since he'd scored such a great deal, so he immediately sent his required $250 deposit to them and asked for someone at Nelson's RV to contact him. Eventually, after some run around, he got the following email - with one of the ballsiest excuses we've ever seen.

Take 2

Coming soon: 'Facebook - The Movie'?

Is Aaron Sorkin getting his geek on?

The famous technophobe and Hollywood scribe is trading the "West Wing" and "Studio 60" corridors for the graffiti-scrawled, software-developer-mobbed corridors of social networking upstart Facebook Inc.

Life Preserver

Help-wanted ad for nanny: 'My kids are a pain'

It was an unusually honest ad for a live-in nanny, a 1,000-word tome beginning, "My kids are a pain." But it worked, attracting a brave soul who's never been a nanny before.

Wine

The 15,000: What reporters are doing at the DNC

There are apparently 15,000 journalists attending the Democratic National Convention. Here is what some of them are doing:

Laptop

Man's 'pants' password is changed

A man who chose "Lloyds is pants" as his telephone banking password said he found it had been changed by a member of staff to "no it's not".

Steve Jetley, from Shrewsbury, said he chose the password after falling out with Lloyds TSB over insurance that came free with an account.

He said he was then banned from changing it back or to another password of "Barclays is better".

The bank apologised and said the staff member no longer worked there.

Mr Jetley said he first realised his security password had been changed when a call centre staff member told him his code word did not match with the one on the computer.

"I thought it was actually quite a funny response," he said.

Bizarro Earth

New Jersey, US: Men Dressed Like Ninjas Targeted Drug Dealers

Clifton police said they arrested two men dressed liked ninjas and armed with Asian martial arts weapons who said they were sending a warning to drug users.

Calling themselves "Shinobi warriors," the men wore black SWAT-type vests and carried knives, throwing stars, swords, nunchucks and a bow and arrows.

After being arrested early Wednesday in a car on Route 46, the men said they were delivering warning letters to drug dealers and drug users urging them to stop their "impure" activities.

Bizarro Earth

US: Angel Pantoja Medina is Dead Man Standing



Angel Pantoja Medina
©Unknown

The body of Angel Pantoja Medina stands leaning against a wall during his wake in his mother's home in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The last wish of Medina was to be standing at his own wake. Thankfully, he was embalmed for the occasion.

File this one under "insanely creepy." A funeral home used a special embalming treatment to keep the corpse of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina standing upright for his three-day wake.

Question

Serbs unveil statue to Bob Marley

A Serbian village unveiled what it said was Europe's first statue to the late Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley on Saturday, to promote tolerance in a region still recovering from war.

Two Balkan musicians, one from Croatia and one from Serbia, unveiled the monument in the village of Banatski Sokolac at midnight during a gathering of rock bands from the Balkans.

Serbian Bob Marley Statue
©Reuters/Nebojsa Markovic
Fireworks explode in the sky above a statue of late Jamaican reggae music legend Bob Marley during the opening ceremony of a rock festival in the Serbian village of Banatski Sokolac.