“Kill a camel, earn cash for cutting greenhouse gases: That offer may be coming soon in Australia, where vast numbers of the nonnative, methane-belching animals have been trampling the Outback for more than a century. The government has proposed that killing camels be officially registered as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Australia has the world’s largest population of wild camels — an estimated 1.2 million — and considers them to be a growing environmental problem. The proposal, released for public comment this week, would allow sharpshooters to earn so-called carbon credits for slaughtering camels. Industrial polluters around the world could buy the credits to offset their own carbon emissions. Each camel belches an estimated 100 pounds of methane a year, which is equivalent to a metric ton (1.1 U.S. ton) of carbon dioxide in its impact on global warming. That’s roughly one-sixth the amount of CO2 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says an average car produces annually. A bill to create a carbon credit regime will go to a vote in the House of Representatives and is expected to become law within weeks.” w/ photos

“Google Earth has captured a spot of penis art drawn on the lawn of a school in New Zealand with weed killer. Snapped in 2009, the search giant’s willy-tastic image has just come to light after a house-hunter stumbled upon it while using Google Maps to browse for properties. ‘At first I thought it was a large piece of art work,’ David McQuoid told the Waikato Times. New Zealand’s very own Cerne Abbas giant  – or Uffington White Horse, if you prefer – is located on some grass at Fairfield College in Hamilton. It’s comprised of six giant phallic symbols in total, with two particularly large ones standing out. Gerhard van Dyk, acting principal at the school, said he plans to contact Google about the images, potentially viewed by millions of web users, to see if they can be changed. According to a spokesperson for the search company, the shots came directly from satellite pictures, unlike Google Street View images which can be blurred for privacy reasons.” w/ photos

“Officials say a moose burst through the dining room window of a retirement home in southwestern Sweden, knocking over furniture and flower pots before taking off into the wild again. Police say aside from the moose, who was scratched by the broken window, no one was injured in Thursday’s surprise visit at the Brunnsgarden retirement home in the small town of Alingsas. Helen Gillquist, head of the home, said residents had just finished lunch and left the ground-floor dining room when the moose jumped through the three-paneled glass window. She says it ‘jumped over a sofa and knocked over chairs and flowers’ before getting stuck in a set of doors.” w/ photo

“When Christian Losciale began his first day of work at Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream on Wednesday, he did not expect to volunteer to de-wing cicadas for a new batch of ice cream. “Scott Southwick tossed the idea around the other day, so I had some idea, but he figured now was a good chance,” Losciale said. Southwick is the owner of Sparky’s. After doing some research and discussion, Sparky’s employees got the green light from their boss to incorporate the buzzing insects into their ice cream. “We always try to push the limit,” Sparky’s Manager Ashley Nagel said about their flavors. The new ice cream will soon sit among flavors like Lavender Honey, Cake Batter and Lemon Poppyseed Muffin. The manager said the new flavor will be easy to spot. “Most of the wings are off but the top layer has wings so that people know what they are getting into,” Nagel said. To make the ice cream, Sparky’s employees collected cicadas from their backyards and brought them in to work on Wednesday. The cicadas are fully cooked through boiling, then covered in brown sugar and milk chocolate. The base ice cream is a brown sugar and butter flavor.” w/ photos

“Richard James doesn’t want his first work as an artist to be appreciated, admired or even enjoyed. What the Inverness resident hopes is that those who see the five, 8-foot-high bottles he’s placed at the intersection of the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road and Highway 1 will be disgusted — and maybe a little ashamed. That’s because James built his sculpture from the plastic bottles he collected while walking the beaches of the Point Reyes National Seashore over the course of one year. The bottles, which formerly filled a barn at the national seashore, are just a small portion of the detritus. James regularly hauls from the Point Reyes shores. He’s hoping their presence along the highway will make viewers think about the things they buy — items that, all too often, end up in the ocean. “These bottles are so big that it’s like putting a magnifying glass on the problem,” said James, 48. “All of a sudden, the problem is in your face and you’re thinking, ‘That looks crappy. I’m going to do something about it.’ James has been wandering — and volunteering — on the beaches of the national seashore since 2004, when the former IT consultant answered an online ad to help install erosion controls on the banks of Drakes Estero. “I was really into fish. That’s what brought me up here,” said James, who took part in volunteer monitoring of the annual coho salmon and steelhead migration.” w/ photos

“A Chinese road sweeper has become a hit after she was spotted using her broom to keep fit with gymnastic exercises while cleaning the streets. Zhang Xiufang was doing her unusual exercise routine when she was spotted by a local man in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. The man subsequently recorded the zany martial arts act on his phone before uploading it onto YouTube. The video was an instant success and such a big hit that Zhang was invited to appear in one of the biggest TV shows broadcast in Nanjing. Zhang said: ‘I got this job when my husband became very ill and was unable to work. Our daughter is in primary school and we needed to pay our bills.” w/ photos

“Prince Edward Island fisherman Blair Doucette has seen many different colors of lobsters — bright red, orange, yellow-red — in his 35-year career, but none like the rare blue lobster he caught. Mr. Doucette trapped the lobster near North Rustico on the Island’s north shore. “I had only ever seen one of those on the television,” he says. The extremely uncommon pigment is the outcome of a genetic disorder.” w/ photos

“Thai customs authorities say 431 turtles and other rare reptiles were stuffed into four suitcases and smuggled into the Bangkok airport. Gharials — a type of crocodile native to India — and Indian star and roofed tortoises were among the endangered species found in the luggage. Customs Department Director-General Prasong Poontaneat says many of the reptiles found are banned from international trade. They were discovered when an Indian traveler arriving from Bangladesh failed to retrieve his bags. Prasong said the animals would be held for evidence and taken care of by wildlife officials.” w/ photo + video

“Police responding to a rare alligator sighting in suburban Kansas City took quick action to dispatch of the beast, shooting it in the head, as instructed, while it lurked menacingly in the weeds leading down to a pond. It wasn’t until a second rifle shot bounced off the reptile’s head that the officers realized they had mortally wounded a concrete lawn ornament. A resident of a subdivision near the pond called police Saturday evening to report that his children spotted the alligator while they were playing in some nearby woods. After consulting a conservation agent, who told them to kill the gator if they felt it posed a danger, one of the officers shot it twice in the head before realizing something was up, said Tom Gentry, an Independence police spokesman. “It didn’t move,” Gentry said. “They inched up closer and closer and discovered it was a mock-up of a real alligator made to look like it was real.” In the officers’ defense, it was growing dark when they shot the fake gator and it was partially submerged in the weeds.” w/ photo

“The graduating class at an Ohio high school features a multitude of multiples: 10 sets of twins and one set of triplets. They make up 8 percent of the 282 seniors receiving their diplomas from Canfield High School on June 12. Principal John Tullio tells The Vindicator of Youngstown the 23 students from multiple births all have come up from kindergarten in the Canfield school district, about 60 miles southeast of Cleveland. Some will attend college with their siblings. Anthony Ferraro tells the newspaper it would be a big deal to separate from twin Jesse, who calls his brother a permanent friend.” w/ photos