A what now?

They uncovered a pistol, a buoy knife, whisky flasks, a set of false teeth, two dog skulls and a blade from a set of sheep shears.

I see. So it floats, I guess. Interesting little article, however, about archaeologists who are digging up an old outhouse. "But it's not that bad," he said.

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Don't tell me not to squeeze the Charmin.

A police officer was shot with his own Taser by a woman visiting his home, authorities said. Officer Charles Jeffers told investigators he'd stopped to use the restroom at his home Sunday night while on his way to investigate a burglary. He let a woman he knew into the house, leading to her accidentally shooting the Taser, according to a police report.

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Sometimes these things just happen.

A hunk of metal that crashed through the roof of a home has NASA, Federal Aviation Administration and New Jersey Transit officials scratching their heads.

The man who lives in the house was watching television Tuesday when he heard a crash and saw a cloud of dust. In the next room, he found a hunk of gray metal, 3 1/2 inches by 5 inches, with two hexagonal holes in it.

Experts say it's manmade, but nobody can say where it might have come from.

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Classic: "but there was something amiss."

Firefighters drove to a vacant house on Tuesday, cut holes in the roof and walls, and broke windows to test their tools and their proficiency.

The problem? It was the wrong house.

They were supposed to be two blocks away at a house slated for demolition.

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In Beaufort, South Carolina, we have a case of self defense and bad timing.

A 19-year-old man picked the wrong time to shoot at two brothers, opening fire just as they got ready to do some target practice, police said. Antoine Robinson was shot once in the arm during the shootout around 4:15 p.m. Monday, Beaufort County deputies said.

Robinson pulled up to the Beaufort home, got out of his car and started firing at brothers Rodmond Singleton, 24, and Titus Singleton, 18, authorities said.

The brothers said they were getting ready to shoot target practice and grabbed their guns and fired back, hitting Robinson once, deputies said.

"Licensed to fire the guns"?

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And finally, yet another fox rampage, this time at a Salisbury, Maryland steakhouse.

A bizarre fox attack at a Salisbury steak house had patrons and employees jumping and scrambling for cover.

The attack happened near closing time Thursday, when customers encountered a wild fox in the parking lot. Feeling threatened, they ran inside the slow-release door at Chef Fred's Chesapeake Steakhouse, Bar & Grill. The fox followed them inside.

For some reason I found this article very interesting.  The giant lion-eating chimps of the magic forest:

Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that, according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla.

Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest.

But despite the difficulties, a handful of scientists have succeeded in studying the animals. Early speculation that the apes may be some yeti-like new species or a chimp/gorilla hybrid proved unfounded, but the truth has turned out to be in many ways even more fascinating. They are actually a population of super-sized chimps with a unique culture - and it seems, a taste for big cat flesh.

They use tools, they aren't afraid of humans, and though they haven't been seen actually killing a big cat, they have been seen eating big cats.  They also aren't afraid to sleep on the ground.  Interesting and strange.

There has been a spate of alleged crypto-critter sightings in the area of Basra, Iraq.  The creature is supposed to attack people at night.  Cryptomundo covered it here, and later followed up here.  It's called "Garta," or "the muncher," and conspiracy theories are abounding through the area that U.S. or British troops have concocted this creature in their super-secret crypto-critter laboratories, only to release them around Iraq and cause general terror and mayhem.

(Cough).

However, the good people of Iraq can rest easy.  Major Mike Shearer (a U.K. military spokesman), has stated (with what must certainly be the quote of the week):

We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.

Well. Isn't that a relief.

Strange in San Antonio reports that a cougar was recently spotted in the San Antonio area.  Many years ago, cougars ranged widely over this whole area, but this is the only sighting I know of in recent times.

I blogged about my own cougar sighting before.  You can read it here, if you want.

When they become available, that is.

Its rock-hard surface can take a full-on assault from a baseball bat, yet remains flexible enough to allow you to kick, leap and roll with perfect ease. Crafted from cutting-edge science, its unique molecular structure means that while providing armoured protection against crude concrete and even barbed wire, it remains light enough to allow you to run at high speed.

This story in the Sunday Herald is about Richard Palmer, who invented something truly marvelous and was ignored by polymer industry bigwigs because what he did was impossible.

And yet it wasn't.

In 1999 Palmer sold his house and car, moved into a friend's spare bedroom and did it himself. Providing funding out of his own pocket, he kick-started the process in a garage lab, calling in academic help from friends where needed and pushing d3o to the point where it was ready for production.

Today the material they said couldn't happen is fast becoming a common component of cutting-edge protective equipment, with the d3o brand beginning to feature in a range of winter and motor sports products worldwide. It has been adopted enthusiastically by the likes of US Olympic ski team, the four-times Everest climber Kenton Cool and Olympic cyclist Craig McClean. Industry observers predict the miracle cloth could be earning annual global revenues of $2 billion within five years.

Since you are reading this blog, I can guess what you might be pondering.  I was pondering it, too.

While he intends to continue developing and enhancing his revolutionary new material, Palmer's Brighton-based development lab team has already produced a range of other products. They include a rigid Frisbee that folds like a soft handkerchief when you catch it, and the world's first bullet-proof wallpaper, a lightweight protective covering that absorbs and contains the deadly shrapnel generated when a projectile pierces most buildings.

At last, my dreams of a folding frisbee are answered.  But seriously, this brief article is a story of an outsider who almost didn't make it because he wasn't part of an industrial establishment.

And a Batman suit is no longer fiction.  Imagine that.

But seriously, there may have been a reappearance of the cougar in Maine.  Cryptomundo has all the info on it.  A bit of fur from the alleged beast is going to be DNA tested.

This could explain previous livestock kills that have been blamed on the "Maine Mystery Beast."

Previous and related posts here and here.

Domestic cats may have ancient roots:

The researchers found wild cats, with DNA identical to domestic cats, in Israel, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

By studying the mitochondrial DNA of 979 domestic and wild cats from Europe, Asia and Africa the researchers concluded that the origins of the species — what O'Brien calls a feline Adam and Eve — developed between 130,000 and 160,000 years ago. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to child.

Domestication of cats began as long as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, O'Brien said, as the earliest farmers domesticated grains and cereal. As that occurred, local wild cats adapted to hunting rodents in the grain and developed a relationship with humans.

The earliest archaeological evidence of cats and humans in association dates to 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.

Interesting article if you're a cat person.  I know a lot of people aren't.  I like cats and dogs, and for many years had both living together in harmony.  And occasionally, teaming up on the squirrels.

For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.

--H.P. Lovecraft