GeekFreak writes "According to Scientific American, In the upcoming issue of the journal Mycologia, scientists describe a new species of stinkhorn fungus from Africa, which they christened Phallus drewesii in honor of their expedition leader. 'I am utterly delighted,' Drewes told the San Jose Mercury News, 'The funny thing is that it is the second smallest known mushroom in this genus and it grows sideways, almost limp.'"

British Columbia's Golden and District Search and Rescue Society has stopped its service due to a lawsuit filed by a skier last month. The lawsuit, filed by Gilles Blackburn, claims the society didn't do enough to save him and his wife after they became lost on Feb. 15. Gilles wife died of hypothermia on their seventh day in the wilderness. The society is concerned about the government's lack of legal support in the incident. Chris Duffy, acting executive director of the PEP, said the province will cover volunteers for liability, but the search-and-rescue societies are a separate legal entity, and therefore responsible for getting their own coverage. "There's a lot of concern over this and a lot of focus on it because it is a first and we want to explore what the gaps and risks are out of this and inform the wider search-and-rescue community to make sure that everyone has the coverages that they need," he said. The moral of the story: Don't get lost in British Columbia.

Butte Montana's National Folk Festival, will hold a lying contest next month. Each contestant will get a fixed amount of time to tell judges about what happened at the poker game last night, the awesome things they did in college, and how small their butts look in those pants. The winner gets a trophy, and the competition is only open to amateur liars: No lawyers, politicians, patent medicine salesmen, or motivational speakers.

Marlon Moore worked out an ingenious scam in which he would send fraudulent documents to the US Treasury Department and the IRS seeking payments. The problem was Marlon sent out documents showing he was owed over $14 trillion, including a $10 million tax refund. He now is facing charges that he obstructed and impeded IRS laws.

Soon all TV will be Muppet Babies.

Nguyen Van Chau, head of Ho Chi Minh City's Health Department, has revealed that many sick passengers who flew to Ho Chi Minh City used fever reducers to fool temperature scanners at the airport. The government has confirmed 26 people infected with H1N1 flu, 23 of whom came by air after traveling in the United States or Australia. State media reports that the discovery of these scanner cheaters led to the detection of several infected cases later.

Relying on recent studies, and not Bullshit! season 3, episode 1, Bill Gates has injected $50 million into a program to circumcise up to 650,000 men in Swaziland and Zambia. The project hopes to curb the spread of HIV in the region. "It's great news, and this is exactly what's needed," says Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser at UNAIDS. "We've been working on development of guidance and technical support, and these development partners are now being funded to take it forward."

Four-year-old Daniel Blair decided his week-old Cocker Spaniel pup needed a good bath, so he put him in the toilet and pulled the chain. The fire brigade and the RSPCA searched but could not locate the dog. Eventually, a plumber from Dyno-Rod was called in. He was able to locate the flushed pup about 20 yards away from the Blairs' home with a drain camera. The dog was then pushed along the pipe to the nearest manhole cover, where a fireman rescued him.

According to Kimberley Vlaminck, she wanted to get three star tattoos, giving her an unhirability score of 1. Instead, she got a score of 10 with 56 stars on her face and a good lesson in why you should never fall asleep at the tattoo parlor. The artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, says Kimberly "got what she wanted" and is only complaining now because her dad got angry and her boyfriend wanted a girl with stars in her eyes, not all over her face. "It is horrible," said Kimberley. "He has turned me into a freak. I can't go out on the street now without people looking at me." She is suing for £10,000.

The blood always gets caught in the vacuum.

To save money, more than 20 Michigan counties have decided to turn deteriorating paved roads back to gravel. Montcalm County estimates that repaving a road costs more than $100,000 a mile. Grinding the same mile of road up and turning it into gravel costs $10,000. At least 50 miles of road have been reverted to gravel in Michigan the past three years. I can't wait until we revert back to whale oil lighting and can finally be rid of this electricity fad.

Dr_Ken writes "The Tactical Corset — It's leather, for that post-apocalyptic fashion style that all pop-culture hipsters love, it lifts and separates, has garters, and includes a pistol holster and an attached equipment pouch for 'interrogation gear' too. Practical, tactical, stylish and kinky. What more could a geek like you ask for?"

eldavojohn writes "To be more inclusive, the city of Toronto photoshopped an African Canadian onto the cover of their city guide. The director responsible for it said 'The goal was to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents.' Another director for the city stated, 'You won't find a more inclusive organization than us. We want everyone to feel involved and welcome to participate in everything. That's the only goal. Nothing wrong with that.' Who's more inclusive than Toronto? NOBODY, that's who!"

Matthew C. Beighey should get a lot of ironic extra credit points in his computer class, but will probably spend time in a juvenile detention facility instead, for writing an application to shut teachers out of their grading system. This was not the first time Matthew had been in trouble for computer-related mischief. Last Fall, he accessed school files containing Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, home addresses, and other data on past and present transportation employees. Matthew's program logged into the grading system as a teacher and entered a false password three times, making it impossible for teachers to get into the system. "If I log on with an incorrect password three times, it locks me out," said District spokeswoman Kelly DeFeciani.

The famous Seattle "gum wall" outside the Market Theater at Pike Place Market has the honor being number two, on the "Most Unsanitary Attraction" list released by TripAdvisor. Starting in the 9'0s, people would put their gum on the wall while they waited for tickets. The city cleaned the wall a couple of times, but soon gave up, and now it's a tourist attraction. The disease-ridden mouths of those seeking the gift of eloquence pushed the Blarney Stone into the number-one spot. Strangely absent from the top 10 list was the Dexter office's barrel of half-empty soda and coffee cans. We'll do better next year.

Umpire Don Briggs ejected the entire crowd at a high school baseball game for being too rowdy. The police were called and it took over 40 minutes to clear the more than 100 angry fans. West Burlington Superintendent James Sleister said the fans weren't acting any different than usual and he thinks the umpire overreacted. A rowdy fan commented that he hoped Briggs's guide dog bit him when he got home.

The first rule of Coke Club is: you never go back to Coke Club.

rhettb writes "Three different species of frogs have been discovered living in the dung of the Asian elephant in southeastern Sri Lanka. The discovery — the first time anyone has recorded frogs living in elephant droppings — has widespread conservation implications both for frogs and Asian elephants, which are in decline. Apparently the frogs feed on the many invertebrates present in elephant dung."

Police were shocked when they discovered a number of robberies were being committed by someone who was biting through steel window bars. "Through our investigations, we found the grids had been cut but with deep tooth prints," a local police spokesman said. They were tipped off by a man who was sharing a hotel room with another man who could crack walnuts with his teeth. After questioning, 23-year-old Xiong, who grew up in a mountain town with abundant walnuts, confessed to the burglaries. Xiong claimed he could chew through any steel bar up to 1 cm in thickness by chewing on welding spots. "I only failed once in the past two years. Once I bit on a 2cm thick steel grid, and the first bite nearly dislocated my jaw. I never take other tools with me when breaking in. That's why I never got stopped by patrolling officers at night," he said. I'm sure he has a lucrative toothpaste spokesman career ahead of him when he gets out of jail.

eldavojohn writes "Winning the lottery requires incredible luck and one in a million odds. So does getting hit by a falling space rock. A 14-year-old German boy was granted a three-inch scar by the gods. A pea-sized meteorite smote young Gerrit Blank's hand before leaving a foot-sized crater on the road. The boy's account: 'At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder. The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road.' Curiously, the rock was magnetic, and tests were done to verify it is extraterrestrial. The Telegraph notes the only other recorded event of a meteorite striking a person was 'in November 1954 when a grapefruit-sized fragment crashed through the roof of a house, bounced off furniture and landed on a sleeping woman.' Space.com lists a few more anomalies and we discussed the probability of these things downing aircraft recently."