News of the Weird

Hmmm…. Well, there goes that cure for hiccups…
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - A Colombian man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday.
After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said.
The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors.
Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who works as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at Galvan and it accidentally went off, witnesses told local television.
“They were drinking but they were aware of what was going on,” one witness said

And who says dreams don’t come true, sometimes they just need a little force behind them…
TOKYO (Reuters) - A middle-aged Tokyo man found to be living with 10 younger women said he attracted them by reciting an incantation that came to him in a dream.
The 57-year-old man’s unusual living arrangements came to light when another woman complained to police that he had threatened her after she refused to join his harem, Kyodo news agency said Wednesday.
“I had a dream that told me I would become attractive to women if I recited a particular incantation,” it quoted the man as saying.
A rapid series of weddings and divorces left the man with a large group of ex-wives, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who shared his surname and continued to live with him.

Uhm…YUCK!!!
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Australian couple could reap a fragrant fortune after what they thought was an odd-looking tree stump turned out to be a rare lump of ambergris, a whale excretion used in perfumes and known as “floating gold.”
Loralee and Leon Wright were walking along a remote beach near Streaky Bay in western South Australia state on a fishing trip three weeks ago when they saw the strange object.
Intrigued, they took a closer look and Leon Wright, thinking it could have been some kind of cyst from a large marine animal, suggested they take the 32 pound lump home.
“She said ‘You’re not putting that thing in my car’,” the Australian Broadcasting Corp. quoted marine ecologist Ken Jury as saying on its Web site (www.abc.net.au) Wednesday.
Curiosity eventually got the better of the Wrights. Unable to find an answer on the Internet, they went back and got it two weeks later and described it to Jury.
“It immediately struck me as being ambergris—it couldn’t be anything else,” Jury said.
“It’s actually belched out by the animal, would you believe, and those few across the world that have witnessed that or heard it say it’s quite remarkable ... apparently the sound of it travels for miles across the water,” he said.
Jury, who is acting for the family, said ambergris can fetch between $20-$65 a gram, The Age newspaper reported on Wednesday. That would make the Wrights’ find worth at least
$295,000.
Used in perfumes by ancient Egyptians and mythologized in literary classics like Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” ambergris is spewed out of the intestines of sperm whales.
Scientists theorize it is produced to aid in the removal of hard, sharp objects like squid beaks that whales may eat.
The waxy, foul-smelling substance is lighter than water and can float for years, during which time it is cleansed by the sun and salt water and becomes hard, dark and waxy and develops a rich musky smell prized by perfumers around the world.
“The Egyptians used it. Certainly the Chinese did and they not only used it in perfumes, but they used to eat it and they used to give it as gifts,” Jury said.