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.

Italian police have crashed their 165,000-euro Lamborghini patrol car. Reports say the car swerved to avoid another vehicle that had crossed its path, and smashed into two parked cars. One of the officers suffered a broken rib, the other only had minor injuries. The Lamborghini was damaged beyond repair.

The boss of an unnamed 31-year-old South Florida woman needs to give her a raise or at least pay her bail. Police say the woman called the Miami International Airport claiming there was a bomb on one of the planes so her boss would not miss his flight. The woman was being held on $7,500 bail.

The small central Australian community of Docker River is experiencing a Camelpocalypse. Over 6,000 feral camels are destroying the town. They've overrun the airport (making emergency medical service impossible), ruined the water infrastructure, tainted drinking water, and left many residents afraid to leave home for fear of being trampled. NT Local Government Minister Rob Knight said, "They're actually coming up to the houses taking water off the overflow from the rooftop air-conditioning. This is a very critical situation out there, it's very unusual and it needs urgent action.'' At least the camels aren't encouraging kids to smoke like they do here in the US.

Ramchandra Das spent the last 14 years creating a hole through a mountain with a hammer and chisel so he could park his truck in front of his house. Das lives in a remote mountainous region and had to leave his truck miles away from his house. A fear of thieves prompted him to ask local authorities for help with a tunnel; when they refused he started the job himself. "We rarely come across a man who can work so hard to achieve his goal," said Prabhat Kumar Jha, a local government official.

LoneHighway writes "Salon.com has a write up of what is being called an epic feat of Nerdity, the "Trinity, Help!" scene from The Matrix has been recreated using only Legos. It took 440 hours for Trevor Boyd and Steve Ilett to create Lego Matrix Trinity Help, which is a perfect shot-by-shot remake of a short but memorable scene from the Wachowski Brothers’ masterpiece, executed via stop-motion animation and a nearly infinite amount of Legos. They even provide a split screen comparison to the original. Very cool!"