World Of Bizarre - Student attacks Hell's Angels (and lives)

Reported here by Reuters, a German student from Allershausen, Bavaria went nuts for reasons as yet unclear. 

The first evidence of this was him (for no apparent reason) making "rude hand gestures" at a group of Hell's Angels. However, clearly feeling this was an inadequate method of venting his rage he then captured a small dog and threw it at the bemused bikers. 


Perhaps at this time he felt he'd pushed his luck too far. (We all know what happens to people who throw puppies at Hell's Angels). So the student decided to make good his escape. By stealing a bulldozer. 

Whether the HA decided to go after him is unclear. Possibly they would have been unable to catch up, as the academic miscreant managed to cause a 3-mile traffic jam by the time he dumped the machine. Police subsequently apprehended him at his house. Apparently he had been suffering from depression. The dog thankfully suffered no harm.

Boy Saves Sister from Moose using World of Warcraft skills.

From the Norway-based news site Nettavisen (here in English via Google Translate, here in Norweigan)

Hans Jørgen Olsen, a 12-year-old boy from Leksvig, Norway was making his way to school with his 10-year-old sister when the pair were confronted by a....MOOSE! The moose was clearly in an irritable mood as it charged them on sight. Young Hans shrieked at the enraged beast but "realised quickly that it would not stop". Presumably when it butted him to the ground. When he regained his bearings the creature was standing menacingly over him.

At this point things get weird. Hans told the newspaper that he drove away the moose by pretending to be dead: a trick he learnt "on Level 30 of World of Warcraft". One might suggest that the moose (a herbivore) got bored and buggered off to find some grass to eat.

But in any case, the moose did leave so Hans and his sister were able to make it to school uneaten. The school nurse was able to confirm that the heroic youth had suffered nowt more damage than a few bruises. All's well that ends well!

Seriously though, a MOOSE? Is a moose really going to kill and devour someone? If so, how? A moose can't exactly GORE ya. Okay, sure, it has antlers. Antlers that look like OVEN GLOVES!

Come to think of it, oven gloves would probably do more damage. You could slap somebody with one and cause them to spill their tea over their foot.


This has been a World Of Bizarre special. 
And unlike *other* sites, I've actually done my research and not embellished the news story.

World Of Crazy - Freak(ing huge) Wave

Video footage of fishing ship hit by rogue wave. (They survived)



"Rogue waves" aka Freak Waves (2 x bigger than the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record) have been long rumoured in maritime folklore but not scientifically measured until 1995 when one hit the Draupner Platform in the North Sea.

As their name suggests, rogue/freak waves appear randomly and there is no clear understanding of their cause and no way of predicting their occurrence. Researchers (and the media) have raised the possibility of rogue waves being responsible for many unexplained disappearences of ships at sea.

World Of Bizarre - You're dicked...er...nicked!

As reported in the Northern Echo and the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette, officers of the North Yorkshire Police were dispatched to a shop in Leeming Bar to confiscate a sandstone penis measuring in at 48 inches (and for once, ladies, that's not an exaggeration).


Jason Hadlow, owner of the Simply Dutch curio shop (and chairman of Yarm Town Council), had the giant geological Johnson imported from Indonesia and erected it (tee hee!) in his shop window.

He was perplexed when members (tee hee!) of the constabulary came to confiscate the collossal cock following complaints from the public that the menacing manhood was "obscene".

Mr Hadlow has been levied an £80 fine over the dong dispute but feels the furore is ridickulous (tee hee!) and has begun a Facebook campaign entitled "Free Willy" to protest against the perceived pecker prejudice.

He is also importing 150 more 4-foot phalluses, 10 of which have already been sold for £200 each. (Making mine worth approximately £30. If it was made of stone.)

In case anyone is wondering why Jakarta has a manufacturing industry devoted to rocky ramrods, it is apparently because Indonesians touch them for good luck. Insert joke here. (insert... heh heh heh!)

Words my own. Photo from GazetteLive. Spotter credit to Angry People In Local Newspapers

World Of Crazy

Boeing 747 landing at airfield on the island of St Maarten in the Caribbean.
They do this all the time!

World Of Shocking (no humour)

Tranquility Bay was a correctional facility for wayward juveniles, based in Jamaica.

Its owner and director, Jay Kay, a bankrupt college dropout who formerly worked as a petrol station attendent, decided to establish a reform-school to which American parents would send their 'deliquent' children (some as young as 12) to be moulded into model citizens.

These teenage tearaways had committed such crimes as being disrespectful to their parents, smoking, having sex, having friends their parents disproved of and in one case smoking a joint.

To reform them they were sent to Tranquility Bay, sometimes after being forcibly removed from their homes, with parental consent (Shannon Levy-Rowley, for example, was handcuffed during her journey and later attempted suicide).

Their parents would legally grant Mr Kay 49% custody, agree to have no contact with the children for up to 12 months, waive the right to prosecute/sue if harm came to their offspring and pay him up to $40,000 a year for the privilege.

Tranquility opened its doors in 1997 and was finally closed down in 2009. (Here and here are parts 1 & 2 of a Guardian/Observer article from 2003 on the establishment.)

In the intervening years the staff (qualifications required: high-school education) employed psychological and physical abuse in order to correct the inmates.

Day-to-day live consisted of grinding prison monotony. Education consisted of reading from text books in silence and making notes. Submission to the system resulted in gaining 'credits', allowing one to progress from level-1 (forbidden from speaking or even moving without permission) to higher levels at which one could not only speak, but could also recommend punishments for kids at lower levels for disobedience.

Ah yes, punishment. Solitary confinement seems to have been frequently employed for teens misguided enough to break rules (or even complain at their treatment), as well as forcing them to lie on their face for hours at a time. If they struggled they might be forcibly thrown to the ground or into the nearest wall.

One girl was forced to spend 18 months (yes, you read that correctly) lying face down - she was allowed to stretch once every hour. Former inmates have reported staff breaking jaws and using weapons ranging from woodern planks to a radio.

One 17 yr-old girl, Valerie Ann Heron, threw herself to her death from a balcony at the facility. A 15 yr-old boy, Kerry Lane Brown, was pepper-sprayed 2/3 times a day over an 8 month period. Following his release he was repeatedly hospitalised due to PTSD and died in 2006 aged 24.

Incidentally, the company which handled the licensed-kidnapping of the youngsters was run by a man named Rick Strawn who previously quit his job as an Atlanta policeman rather than face an internal investigation over allegations he beat and molested his stepdaughter.

Tranquility Bay closed its doors in 2009 due to a decline in business.

Its parent company WWASPS (run by Jay Kay's father, coincidentally) is still operational, although a visit to the Wikipedia link will provide examples of the many cases of child abuse associated with the company.

Credit to TVTropes for the link to Guardian/Observer newsletter. Words my own and validated by sources provided.

The Strange Case Of Fray Tormenta (pt 2)

Continued from Part 1!

Surprisingly, it took 3 years for the Catholic Church to catch on to the fact that a Dominican priest was moonlighting as a masked superhero in arenas across Mexico.

Gutiérrez's superior, Bishop Torreblanca, finally contacted him requesting help in identifying the mysterious Wrestling Priest.
Upon discovering the truth the Bishop predictably ordered a cessation of grappling proclivities.

Gutiérrez's response? Fine, I'll stop. I'll also come by every week to pick up your donation to the orphanage.
The Bishop's response? Okay, you can keep on wrestling!

Fray Tormenta's wrestling career continued to be his primary means of funding his orphanage and the resulting publicity had the benefit of increasing donations from the public.

Within the ring, the predominantly devout Catholic audiences of Mexico were rabid in their support of the Wrestling Priest, which caused much anxiety for his opponents who risked public lynching if they were seen to be acting too despicably during matches. Backstage Gutiérrez became a councillor to other luchadores, even hearing their confessions and once marrying a couple inside the ring. All without removing his mask!

Fray Tormenta retired from the grappling game in 2000 but continues to run his church and orphanage to this day, which has apparently produced a priest, two accountants, three doctors, seven lawyers, sixteen teachers and twenty computer technicians as well as a young luchador who has adopted la mascara under the name Fray Tormenta Junior (who is also a graduate in criminal law - education first!). Tormenta (Sr) has appeared in lucha libre post-retirement, mostly in the role of mentor to CMLL star Mistico.

In addition to Nacho Libre and a Jean Reno film L'Homme au masque d'or, Gutiérrez/Fray Tormenta has also been the prototype for several video game characters ("King" from the Tekken series, "Greco" from Chrono Cross and "Tizoc" from Fatal Fury) as well as the titular hero of the Japanese anime Tiger Mask, which itself has become the most famous gimmick in puroresu (Japanese professional wrestling) with four different wrestlers coming to fame portraying the masked do-gooder.

God indeed moves in mysterious ways!

All words my own
Photo at top of page (c) SLAM! Sports

The Strange Case Of Fray Tormenta (pt 1)

How a Mexican tearaway became a man of God, was trained as a wrestler, founded an orphanage and inspired 2 films, an anime and several video game characters!


Anno domini 2006 saw the release of a Jack Black comedy movie resplendent in the name Nacho Libre.
The title presumably confused the shit out of a lorra folks as it badly translates into English as "Free Nacho" (I'm undecided as to whether this was deliberate).

However, the sophisticates among us (i.e. SMARKS!) would instantly have recognised the reference to lucha libre ("free fight" or, more accurately, "freestyle fighting"), the Mexican form of professional wrestling.

The film's bizarre premise is that the main character, a monk, becomes a luchador (professional wrestler) in order to raise money for the orphanage at which he works.

What is more bizarre is that the film is based on a true story...

Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez was born into poverty in Mexico City, the 15th of 17 children. As a youngster he busked, sold ice lollies and cobbled together furniture in order to survive. He also discovered alcohol and drugs.

It was during this phase of substance abuse that Gutiérrez apparently had a hallucination in which he saw himself as a priest delivering communion in church. So inspired was the young man by the vision that he promptly went cold turkey (he has claimed the detox process took 72 hours, during which he was strapped to a bed) and joined a seminary of the Dominican Order. He was ordained in 1973 having travelled to Spain and, of course, Rome.

After a period of time spent teaching history and philosophy in Mexican colleges Gutiérrez settled in Texcoco (25 km NE of Mexico City) and, remembering his roots, began taking in abandoned children (at first in secret).

His cash-strapped superiors refused to grant him the money required to set up a proper orphanage to house the strays leaving the young priest with a problem. And, as a childhood fan of lucha libre who had observed the huge success of Mohammed Ali, he had the perfect solution. Become a professional wrestler to raise funds!

After months of training from a sympathetic luchador, the newly-named Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm), the Wrestling Priest, was ready to debut. In the Mexican tradition Tormenta would wear a mask (coloured gold for divinity and red for the blood of self-sacrifice) that would also serve the purpose of concealing his identity from the Catholic Church.

Gutiérrez imagined he would set the world on fire and make a million-or-so in one year, enough to retire from the ring and build the mother of all orphanages.

His first paypacket was approximately 20 bucks... He was in for the long haul.

Continues in Part 2