People traveling down State Highway 2, between Woodville and Dannevirke, in New Zealand this morning were in for an offal surprise. 15km of the highway was covered in blood, discarded pieces of butchered animals, and fat, 30 cm deep in spots, after the tailgate of a truck carrying the mess opened. A spokesman for the New Zealand Transport Agency said, "It's not really a good day for my boys. Offal spills have a huge amount of fat in them and that poses a risk to the public so we closed the road," adding that the scene was, "pretty bloody awful."

New Zealand Police working in Waitarere Beach are trying a new tactic in the war against bad driving. They are rewarding good drivers with candy. "This year we decided rather than going out with a big stick and punishing people being bad, we would also reward people for good behavior," Constable Ian Hamblyn said. If the program is a success, New Zealanders who manage not to steal will be rewarded with a peanut butter cup.

ColdWetDog writes "Wired is running a story on DARPA's effort to stave off battlefield casualties by turning injured soldiers into zombies by injecting them with a cocktail of one chemical or another (details to be announced). From the article, 'Dr. Fossum predicts that each soldier will carry a syringe into combat zones or remote areas, and medic teams will be equipped with several. A single injection will minimize metabolic needs, de-animating injured troops by shutting down brain and heart function. Once treatment can be carried out, they'll be "re-animated" and — hopefully — as good as new.' If it doesn't pan out we can at least get zombie bacon and spam."

theodp writes "After a copy of Get a Grip on Physics appeared in police photos of Tiger Wood's golf club/hydrant-damaged SUV, the book's Amazon sales rank jumped from 396,224 to 2,268. 'I'm delighted,' said author John Gribbin upon hearing that Tiger was in possession of his layman's guide to physics. 'I write books about science for people who aren't scientists so he's exactly my target audience.'"

Freshly Exhumed writes "Broadcasting illegally on the FM Radio band from atop his father's strip club in Canada's capital city of Ottawa, young Jayhaed Saadé was handed a cease-and-desist order by Industry Canada inspectors on December 2 to shut down his MIX FM operation, then simply waited a few hours, pumped up the volume once again the next afternoon, and still remains defiantly on the air. His choice of programming has been described as a blatant rip-off of Lebanon's popular MIX FM music station. The story gets weirder as it seems Saadé's father is a former Ottawa mayoralty candidate, and apparently sees no harm in his son's illegal activities despite looming $20,000-per-day fines that Industry Canada may impose under Canada's Broadcasting Act, let alone the shark feeding frenzy that is sure to occur when the Mounties, the taxman, music industry copyright/plagiarism watchdogs, and other aggrieved parties descend on his second floor playhouse."

What do you do if the horses in your county start turning up with braided manes? If you're the police force in West Dorset, England you consult a warlock to make sure it isn't a sign of something malign. From the article: "PC Tim Poole, who has investigated the incidents, said: 'We can't completely rule out the possibility of theft. We did have intelligence from Avon and Somerset police that it is a gypsy trick, which it may or may not have been. But we have some very good information from a warlock that this is part of a white magic ritual and is to do with "knot magick." It would appear that for people of this belief, knot magick is used when they want to cast a spell.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Back in 2008, Lucas Ordonez lived what seemed like an ordinary existence. The 22-year-old Spanish student was an avid motorsports fan, but he lacked the suitable investment necessary to become a professional race driver and had virtually given up on racing. Besides, he was already knee-deep in trying to complete a Master of Business Administration (MBA). But it was Ordonez' passion for virtual racing, particularly his love of Gran Turismo, that made him stand out from his peers — both off the track and eventually on it. In just a few months, Ordonez' life was transformed from console dreamer to racing the real thing at a real race track in Europe. And Ordonez managed to do the unthinkable: go from the couch car to the race car, and win."

A course at the University of Michigan ends with a live concert featuring students using iPhones as instruments. “Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble“ teaches students to code musical instruments for the iPhone, using the Apple-provided software-development kit. Georg Essl, assistant professor of computer science and music, says, "What’s interesting is we blend the whole process. We start from nothing. We teach the programming of iPhones for multimedia stuff, and then we teach students to build their own instruments.”

An anonymous reader writes "6 SWAT, 2 uniformed officers, 2 undercover, a chopper in the air, surrounding streets blocked off with five cop cars, two ambulances and a dozen cops. That's what it takes to stop a man packing LEGOs. Jeremy bought himself one of these, someone saw him playing with it in the office and the rest is history."

Copenhagen's Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard thought sending postcards to hotels warning summit guests to stay away from Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference was a good idea. What he didn't know is that hell hath no marketing scheme like a prostitute scorned. The Sex Workers Interest Group has now offered free sex to anyone producing one of the postcards. "This is sheer discrimination. Ritt Bjerregaard is abusing her position as Lord Mayor in using her power to prevent us carrying out our perfectly legal job. I don't understand how she can be allowed to contact people in this way," SIO Spokeswoman Susanne Møller said.

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory in West London thought about all the problems facing the world today: global warming, pollution, disease, and diminishing natural resources. They thought about them all, and then built the world's smallest 'snowman.' The art project, which is 0.01mm across, is made from tiny tin beads, normally used to calibrate electron microscopes. A focused ion beam carved the snowman's face with a tiny bit of platinum as a nose. I bet these guys were Play-Doh phenoms when they were kids.

The small Brazilian town of Candido Godol is noteworthy for its large German population and remarkable for its twin birth rate. The town has approximately 80 families and 44 sets of twins, a rate that is 1000% higher than normal. Many theories have sprung up over the years to account for the anomaly. National Geographic explores one of the latest and perhaps the most disturbing, the possibility that the twins are a result of an experiment conducted by Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele.

For some people a marriage is not official until it is recognized by family, church, state, and Facebook.

Vainglorious Coward writes "Polygraph 'expert' Bruce Burgess who has worked with several trashTV shows has received a suspended sentence for lying to police about a traffic offense. Burgess, whose website promises 'testing your honesty in the only way possible' pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice after lying about being the driver recorded by a speed camera. It appears that good old-fashioned police work is what broke the case, rather than any technological chicanery, with the police officer commenting 'my advice is — put your hands up at the first opportunity.'"

Scientists at the University of Montreal would love to compare the views of men in their 20s who had never been exposed to pornography with regular porn watchers. The problem is, they can't find a man in that age category who has never seen it. “We started our research seeking men in their 20s who had never consumed pornography,” said Professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse. “We couldn't find any.”

heychris writes "You've gotta love the Chicago Tribune's story on Tesla Coil hobbyists from the first sentence. 'Under a starry Saturday sky behind a Lake Zurich warehouse, three men unload a small flamethrower, electric cabling, neon-tube "light sabers," about 80 pounds of chain mail and two 7-foot devices that look like monster-movie props.' So what does one do with 1.6 million volts and a Tesla coil or two? Play 110dB music, of course."

Police are searching for a pair of suspects who tried to rob a funeral home that they mistook for a bank. The men assaulted a worker before another employee informed them that they weren't in a bank. It appears the pair learned from their mistake, as they are believed to have successfully robbed a nearby bank later.

Employees at a Marietta, Ohio Goodwill store were surprised to find four bags of marijuana when they opened a donated water jug. According to police the gift that keep on giving had a street value of $1500. "If anybody would like to come in and claim this 'cooler,' which is probably an antique, we would love to have them come in and we'll be more than happy to try and get that cooler returned to them," Marietta Police Capt. Jeff Waite said.

trianglecat writes "The not-for-profit agency Canadian Blood Services has a section of their website based on the Japanese cultural belief of ketsueki-gata, which claims that a person's blood group determines or predicts their personality type. Disappointing for a self-proclaimed 'science-based' organization. The Ottawa Skeptics, based in the nation's capital, appear to be taking some action."

The Bears will be remembered as innovative rappers long after we've forgotten their footballing ways.