A quick-thinking Thai fireman dressed up as Spider-Man to coax a frightened autistic eight-year-old from a balcony. The boy, who was scared on his first day at school, walked out on to the third-floor ledge and refused to come inside. His mother mentioned her son's love of superheroes, and fireman Sonchai Yoosabai hurried back to the station and made a quick change into a Spider-Man costume. Mr Somchai said he keeps the Spider-Man costume and an outfit of Japanese television character Ultraman at the station in order to liven up school fire drills. "I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous," Mr Somchai told local television.

A man confused by years of pot smoking, believed he was married for almost a decade, but discovered he wasn't after trying to marry a new partner. When the The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry could find no record of the marriage he said he could not remember a wedding ceremony taking place but always believed he had been married. He told the Family Law Court in Sydney that the details of the wedding must have slipped his mind because he was so stoned. In fact he had no "meaningful recollection" of significant portions of the marriage. He and his "wife" fought all the time and in 2003 she gave him a document to sign, which he believed was their divorce papers. When he contacted her for proof of their divorce, she told him it was a residential tenancy agreement. The new couple are free to marry now provided he can remember where the ceremony will take place, who she is and why all these people are here?

Kids are staying well off the lawns in Zephyrhills, Florida, thanks to Mark Shuey and a martial art he calls Cane-Fu. He travels the country teaching cane fighting at dojos, senior centers and retirement communities. He has even started a company called Cane Masters, that sells wood canes made of harder, thicker wood, to sustain wear and wider crooks to fit around an attacker's neck. "When you put this little crook around someone's neck, their whole attitude changes real fast," Shuey said.

Some Mexican villages are truly going Medieval on gangsters by digging moats across every access road but one into their communities. The villages have been besieged by armed gunmen who come into town and kidnap people. Government help arrived too late, or not at all. "This was a means of preservation," said Ruben Solis, 47, a farmers' leader in Cuauhtemoc, a collection of adobe and concrete houses called home by 3,700 people. "It's better to struggle this way than to face the consequences."

After stopping her car to revive her severely disabled son, Penny Batkin was given a parking ticket for making an illegal stop. Mrs. Batkins was taking her son to a hospice in Hampton when he began gasping for breath and turning blue. The ticket cost $145 and the Richmond Council's parking office was nice enough to refuse to rescind the ticket even after she explained what had happened. Richmond Aid officials say they hope local authorities can find it "in their hearts to rescind a parking fine incurred by a desperate mother who had no choice if she was to save the life of her child." Rules are rules. If the police make an exception in this case for a dying child they'll have to make exceptions for dying parents, or even dying extended family members. Where do you draw the line?

Marker's best friend.

Bomb disposal teams were called in and a nearby pub evacuated after water company engineers mistook a Monty Python film prop for a hand grenade. After nearly an hour of examination by bomb experts, they counted to three. No more. No less. Three was the number they counted, and the number they counted was three. Four they did not count, nor two, except to proceed to three. Five was right out. Once the number three had been reached, being the third number, they declared that the grenade was actually a copy of the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" used in the film Monty Python And The Holy Grail. A police spokeswoman confirmed that the device was a toy and that it had been no danger to the public.

Owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence, Rhode Island plan to hold a job fair on Saturday. They're looking to fill 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts. "I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now," said co-owner Tom Tsoumas. I can't believe there aren't enough struggling single moms, poor students trying to get through college, or women with father issues in Providence. It sounds like paradise.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua is hoping a new patriotic slogan emblazoned on T-shirts and baseball caps can restore self-confidence and overturn its battered reputation. "Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation," is the new slogan. "At international airports, in trains, in shopping malls, and almost everywhere, every Nigerian is a marked person," Dora Akunyili, information minister and self-styled chief image maker said at the launch of the re-branding campaign this week. Considering what's going on around them they could have also chose, "Nigeria: We won't force you to eat your family" or "Nigeria: No, we're not the place with all the genocide."

Amee Ellsworth says she is terrified that her home could blow up because of natural gas that has seeped into her water supply. She can ignite the water with a lighter from faucets in her kitchen or bathroom. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission determined the gas is coming from a leak in one of eight active gas wells within a half-mile radius of the Elllsworth's home. Amee should look on the bright side. Not everyone gets to take a shower that cleans and sterilizes all at once.

ghostlibrary writes "March Madness for geeks — NASA has up its Mission Madness stunt — 6 rounds of head-to-head mission competition. This isn't to decide funding for new stuff, nor is it a robot war. Instead, it's a popularity contest, with the added plus of trying to predict beforehand which missions will win. Each bracket winnows out half the mission choices, to ultimately determine which was the most popular NASA mission. The first voting round is today, act quick to get in on the geeky action, or just browse it April 8th if you want to skip ahead to the results. I have my guess of how it well end up on my astronomy blog, but obviously seeing my predictions before you cast your own may skew the results. Remember, this isn't science, it's sociology."

Good tanker mothers accept both cars and trucks.

TheDopp writes "The United Nations hosted the cast and crew of Battlestar Galactica Tuesday evening in New York. Clips of the show were shown as discussion points during the event, touching on the morality of Suicide Bombers in war, Abortion and the use of torture on enemies of the state. At one point during the event an attendee mentions 'the "Old Man" launched into a passionate speech about casting off the idea of race as a cultural determinant, and said we were one race, the human race. His voice echoed throughout the chamber growing louder until — I kid you not — he was yelling, "So Say We All," and the crowd answered right back. Hell, even I yelled it, I was in the fraking United Nations with Adama, the gods themselves could not have stopped this moment.' The full video of the event is located on the UN website."

Principal Donald Moten, and other staff members at South Oak Cliff High School, allegedly sent troubled students into a steel utility cage in an athletic locker room to battle out disputes with bare fists. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News say the "cage fights" took place between 2003 and 2005 but don't say how many fights there were. "It was gladiator-style entertainment for the staff," said Frank Hammond, a middle school counselor in Cedar Hill who was fired from South Oak Cliff High School and has filed a whistleblower lawsuit. "They were taking these boys downstairs to fight. And it was sanctioned by the principal and security." Better that our children learn the rules of Thunderdome now before the great pocsaclypse than have to learn them when they visit Barter Town.

Sometimes the fields get a bit boring.

Davis Lee Huynh will defend his title as world air hockey champion at the finals in Vegas this weekend. Davis said he decided early on that he was going to put his all into being the best at the game. "I don't want to win just one, I want to dominate for a few years because that's how people remember you," said Huynh. I'm sure you'll be able to watch the nail biting action on ESPN 4 right after the Magic tournament and the competitive eating showcase.

An anonymous reader writes "Remember that Seinfeld episode where George was unemployed and made up Vandelay Industries to be his former employer and work reference? Well, a new website is taking that idea to the Web 2.0 level, complete with faux stock options, salary and other benefits. 'Wurkers' who join Z-G-I.com are offered a variety of benefits seen at real companies, including free business cards, desktop software, a virtual desk at Starbucks, t-shirts, and even a 'subsidized' lunch program."

The Clown Ride may move slow, but it's only because The Clown Ride doesn't have to move for anybody.

Four Spanish teenagers sent a camera-operated weather balloon into the stratosphere. The boys built the electronic sensor components from scratch. Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort attached a £56 camera to a heavy duty £43 latex balloon, and sent their science project 20-miles above the Earth. Team leader Gerard Marull, 18, said, "We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs, to send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible."

My hologram is everywhere I can't be.