“The Australian police just busted a shipment of half a billion dollars worth of crystal methamphetamine and heroin off the coast of Thailand. The drug bust is the third largest heroin bust in Australian history and the largest ever crystal meth haul.” w/ photos

“A 76-year-old female, with a blameless medical history other than well-controlled depression, was referred for urgent investigation due to weight loss and diarrhoea. A flexible sigmoidoscopy demonstrated severe diverticulosis and a subsequent CT abdomen showed a linear foreign body in the stomach but no other abnormality. Her symptoms resolved spontaneously. On subsequent questioning, she recalled unintentionally swallowing a pen 25 years earlier. While she was interrogating a spot on her tonsil with the pen she slipped, fell and swallowed the pen by mistake. Her husband and general practitioner dismissed her story and plain abdominal films done at the time were reported as normal. A gastroscopy demonstrated a plastic felt-tip pen sitting in the lumen of the stomach without evidence of any gastric damage… The pen was still in working order. This case highlights that plain abdominal x-rays may not identify ingested plastic objects and occasionally it may be worth believing the patient’s account however unlikely it may be.” w/ photos

“A nine-year-old boy with a massive tumor was whisked from a gang-infested neighborhood in Mexico by US agents and taken across the border for treatment in New Mexico. The boy and his parents were snatched from the gang-infested neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez – one of the deadliest cities in the world – in an armored vehicle after members of a New Mexico Baptist church saw him near an orphanage and sought help. The parents of the child, identified only as Jose to protect his family, said the tumor on his shoulder and neck had grown so large that it affected his eyesight and could move into his heart. With no money for medical care, the family sought treatment in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, but did not receive any help removing the tumor, which has afflicted Jose since birth. Si Budagher, pastor of First Baptist Church of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, said church members spotted the boy while doing missionary work and felt compelled to help. ‘He just came up to us and offered to carry groceries,’ Mr Budagher said. ‘The Lord put him in front of us.’ Church members only recently resumed missionary work in the border city after suspending visits over the violence between competing drug cartels which has claimed thousands of lives.” w/ photos

“Highway patrol officers in Washington say a female driver is lucky to be alive after ramming her car into a trailer filled with long wooden teepee poles. The poles smashed through the front windscreen, completely pierced through the car and smashed through the rear windscreen as well. No details have been released about the driver involved, other than the fact that she was taken to hospital with a number of injuries. Miraculously, though, none of the injuries were considered life-threatening. A report in the Komo News said a couple driving a station wagon was transporting the teepee poles – used to make the classic American Indian conical tents – when they slowed down because a truck was turning off the Mount Baker Highway into Everson Goshen Road near Deming around 10am yesterday.” w/ photos

“That cat ate it’s twin!” — emeraldsunsets

“This Christian/polygamist family in India has 161 members, all living in the same home.”

“Physicists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have smashed gold ions together to produce a quark-gluon plasma like that which existed in the first instant after the Big Bang that created the universe, and in doing so have produced what Guinness World Records says is the highest man-made temperature ever, 7.2 trillion degrees. That is about 250,000 times hotter than the temperature at the core of the sun.” w/ photo

“Mexican doctors have successfully removed a 33lb benign tumor from the body of a two-year-old child. Dr Gustavo Hernandez said the tumor was heavier than the child who at the time of the surgery weighed 26lb. Dr Hernandez said the child from the northern state of Durango was born with a lump that eventually covered the right side of his body from his armpit to his hip. Dr Hernandez said it took doctors at the La Raza Medical Center in Mexico City 10 hours to remove the tumor.” w/ photos

“A woman recently opened up her monthly electric bill to find that she was charged $1.3million. Kristin Harriger, of Abilene, Texas, received a bill from Dallas-based Potentia Energy earlier this month for a balance of $1,381,783.92. The electric company blamed a third-party business that handled the billing for the mistake that also listed Ms Harriger responsible to pay an additional $66,000 if she paid the balance late.” w/ photos

“Gamblers in Las Vegas are used to seeing some high odds. But even the most veteran of gamesters would have been shocked to see one roulette wheel hit the same number on seven consecutive spins. The amazing occurrence, the odds of which happening are 114 billion to one, happened at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. Pro poker player Jeff Romano took a picture of the roulette wheel display screen, which clearly shows a run of seven straight spins landing on the number 19.” w/ photos