The most weird or stupid news story you heard today.

[AlethiaSi]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Real estate billionaire Leona Helmsley left $12 million (6 million pounds) in her will for her dog Trouble but cut out two of her four grandchildren entirely.



Helmsley, the "Queen of Mean" who was famously quoted as saying "only the little people pay taxes" before going to jail for tax evasion, died August 20 at 87.
The 14-page will was made public in Surrogate's Court on Tuesday and reported in New York media on Wednesday, with the New York Post headlining the story "Rich bitch," referring to the female dog.
Trouble, a white Maltese, will be cared for by Helmsley's brother Alvin Rosenthal, who was left $10 million.
Two grandchildren, David and Walter Panzirer, will be left $5 million each as long as they visit their father's grave at least once a year -- Helmsley's son, Jay Panzirer, died in 1982 -- and her chauffeur will get $100,000.
"I have not made any provisions in this will for my grandson Craig Panzirer or my granddaughter Meegan Panzirer for reasons which are known to them," Helmsley wrote.
The will calls for Trouble to be entombed alongside Helmsley and husband Harry Helmsley, who died in 1997, in their $1.4 million mausoleum, for which Leona Helmsley set aside $3 million for upkeep including annual cleanings.
A spokesman for Helmsley declined to comment on the will.
Helmsley was convicted of evading $1.7 million in taxes in 1989 and served 18 months in federal prison.
At trial a former housekeeper recounted that Helmsley had once told her: "We don't pay taxes. Only little people pay taxes." Helmsley denied making the statement.
Much of her estimated $4 billion fortune is tied up in Helmsley Enterprises, which will be controlled by five people, Walter and David Panzirer, Rosenthal, Helmsley's lawyer and a Helmsley adviser, the New York Post reported. Other proceeds from the sale of her estate are destined for a charitable trust.

This is a big story in NY.... she was so scary (mean wise and she's had so much damn plastic surgery... gives me the willies)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070829/...UcZKlBHC3tiBIF

[AlethiaSi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/naked_man...1p1gd2mUjtiBIF

DE SOTO, Mo. - The naked truth: Three eastern Missouri men were willing to go to extreme lengths to get some beer.

That's the accusation after an incident in the early hours of August 18th at Fish's Quick Stop in De Soto. Store clerk Vicky Gaines says a masked man walked in and began doing the hula dance.
Police say the plan was for the naked dancer to create a distraction while another man took a case of beer from the store. It didn't work.
Gaines called police. As the naked man and his accomplice joined a third man in a car, a customer got their license plate number. All three were caught a few days later.
The men, ages 19 to 23, face charges of shoplifting and indecent exposure.

[scbelle]

Originally Posted by AlethiaSi

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/naked_man...1p1gd2mUjtiBIF

Absolutely crazy. Reminds me of a story of a girl at my college. She went to the local convenience store to buy beer, only she was underage. She had already been drinking. She got up to the counter to pay, and the clerk said something about her shoes being cool. She raised her leg to put on the counter so he could get a closer look at the shoes, only she was wearing a dress (I'm assuming she forgot), so he got an eyeful of something else. But she got the beer without having to show ID.

[AlethiaSi]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police have detained a 45-year-old municipal worker for stealing a bridge.

The 5-metre span metal bridge disappeared from a river crossing in the Ryazan region, east of Moscow. Police said they tracked it down to the man, who had used his work truck to remove it and then chopped it up and sold it for scrap.
In a statement, Ryazan region police called it "the bulkiest theft of the year".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070831/...Sgu_VoE03tiBIF

[AlethiaSi]

WILLS POINT, Texas - Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.

Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won't go anywhere near it.
"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."
Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.
"I've been hearing from entomologists from Ohio, Kansas, British Columbia — all over the place," said Mike Quinn, an invertebrate biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who first posted photos online.
Herbert A. "Joe" Pase, a Texas Forest Service entomologist, said the massive web is very unusual.
"From what I'm hearing it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.
But John Jackman, a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University, said he hears reports of similar webs every couple of years.
"There are a lot of folks that don't realize spiders do that," said Jackman, author of "A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas."
"Until we get some samples sent to us, we really won't know what species of spider we're talking about," Jackman said.
Garde invited the entomologists out to the park to get a firsthand look at the giant web.
"Somebody needs to come out that's an expert. I would love to see some entomology intern come out and study this," she said.
Park rangers said they expect the web to last until fall, when the spiders will start dying off.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/...1Ucp6aed3tiBIF

[Scandia]

This one is weird, but also cute and heartwarming:

A dolphin got a prosthetic tail.

[AlethiaSi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mythical_...JOdG_moBrtiBIF

CUERO, Texas - Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

"It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.
Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.
She suspects, as have many rural denizens over the years, that a chupacabra may have killed as many as 26 of her chickens in the past couple of years.
"I've seen a lot of nasty stuff. I've never seen anything like this," she said.
What tipped Canion to the possibility that this was no ugly coyote, but perhaps the vampire-like beast, is that the chickens weren't eaten or carried off — all the blood was drained from them, she said.
Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Canion thinks recent heavy rains ran them right out of their dens.
"I think it could have wolf in it," Canion said. "It has to be a cross between two or three different things."
She said the finding has captured the imagination of locals, just like purported sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster have elsewhere.
But what folks are calling a chupacabra is probably just a strange breed of dog, said veterinarian Travis Schaar of the Main Street Animal Hospital in nearby Victoria.
"I'm not going to tell you that's not a chupacabra. I just think in my opinion a chupacabra is a dog," said Schaar, who has seen Canion's find.
The "chupacabras" could have all been part of a mutated litter of dogs, or they may be a new kind of mutt, he said.
As for the bloodsucking, Schaar said that this particular canine may simply have a preference for blood, letting its prey bleed out and licking it up.
Chupacabra or not, the discovery has spawned a local and international craze. Canion has started selling T-shirts that read: "2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas," accompanied by a caricature of the creature. The $5 shirts have gone all over the world, including Japan, Australia and Brunei. Schaar also said he has one.
"If everyone has a fun time with it, we'll keep doing it," she said. "It's good for Cuero."