Weird world
Wednesday, 29 Aug 2007 17:37
Cows wearing the satellite tags
GPS cows, biker's hand stolen and woman weaves clothes from dog hairs. We check out this week's strangest stories.
An appeal has been launched to find a biker's prosthetic hand after it was stolen when he left it gripped to the handle of his motorbike.
Jack Baker, 19, lost his right arm when he was involved in a crash with a bus in May and had a fake hand fitted to enable him to ride an adapted motorbike.
When he went to visit his girlfriend in Bristol last week he left it attached to the bike, thinking he would only be a few minutes.
"I ended up staying for two hours," he said. "I came out and found the hand was gone. I thought it was my girlfriend's parents messing about but they said it wasn't them.
"I went for a look around but I couldn't see my hand anywhere."
Although Mr Baker has a second hand designed for racing the stolen one is of a better quality. Police are now appealing for anyone with information about the missing hand to come forward.
Usually satellite tagging is used to monitor the movements of wild animals including polar bears and turtles, but now it has reached the English countryside to protect wildlife in the Yorkshire Dales.
Three out of a herd of 50 Blue Grey and Beef Shorthorns on Natural England's Ingleborough National Nature Reserve are wearing electronic collars so that conservationists can keep an eye on their movements and find out what they eat and when.
"That will tell us what they prefer to eat during the different seasons of the year and this will help us to asses their impact on the local ecology," said Paul Evans, who manages the nature reserve.
"This detailed information on animal behaviour will help us develop management techniques to direct the cattle away from certain areas and into others."
People who love their dogs are taking their obsession to new level in Germany by having clothes made out of their fur.
According to Ananova, Bettina Menkhoff, 50, from Stoetze has been making scarves and gloves from her dogs but also takes in requests from fellow dog-lovers.
"I have four Beardie-Collies myself and started to yarn their hair," she explained. "It only works when the hair is longer than four centimetres though. I regularly brush my dogs and keep the hair for processing. It's warmer than sheep wool."
Ms Menkhoff added: "The best business though is with customers who send me the hairs of their dog to make clothes for them."
And finally, men looking for an unusual way to keep their memory alive after their death should turn to the penis museum in Iceland. According to the Irish Independent Curator Sigurdur Hjartarson has managed to collect 195 penises from hamsters to whales, but he is still lacking a human manhood. A worldwide appeal has now been launched to find someone willing to donate this part.
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