“Passengers on a bus in Argentina got an unwelcome surprise when police found more than 600 snakes and other reptiles packed in the luggage compartment, a ranger said… The trafficker had loaded them with 444 boas, vipers and other snakes; 186 endangered tortoises; 40 lizards, and an armadillo. The smuggler, who was arrested, boarded the bus in Santiago del Estero, where he had spent three months trapping various species in the bush with the intent of selling them, Chersich said.” w/ photos

“Fashion student Lisa Dillon from Bath Spa University designed and made the ‘Jimmy Cheese’ shoes using West Country cheddar. The budding fashionista from the Department of Fashion, Textile and 3D Design crafted the high heels from cheese and bread. A block of cheddar was sculpted to make the heel and a stale cheese sandwich was used for part of the platform sole. The front of the shoe was moulded from more cheddar and extra cheese was melted and shaped to embellish the design. A range of ‘cheese couture’ footwear by students from Bath Spa Universirty will be displayed at the 2011 Royal Bath & West Show to promote the region’s cheese.” w/ photos

“Elephants made a bit of a splash as they soaked crowds with their trunks in Thailand to mark the Songkran water festival. In Ayutthaya province, 50 miles north of Bangkok, the animals filled their trunks to drench tourists and locals who were celebrating on the streets. The natural water cannons on legs were decorated with paint as they took part in the festival to mark the traditional Thai new year. The festival is one of the country’s most celebrated annual events and comes from an ancient custom to help guarantee enough water for the new season’s crops.” w/ photos

“After selling their house for $395,000 he gave every cent to charities, a court has been told. The man, 58, also has boasted he put all his bank statements in a bucket of water and made papier mache out of them. The man told the Federal Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Victoria, that he bought hundreds of envelopes and posted $395,000 in donations. He said he was now jobless, with $2,000 in the bank, a $1,000 car, and land worth $10,000. Magistrate Norah Hartnett concluded the man had taken the drastic action to deprive his wife of any money after 20 years of marriage. The $395,000 was the couple’s windfall from the sale of their family home, which went under the hammer before they split. After their relationship broke down, the woman went to court because she was concerned about what had happened to their cash. At the time, she was living in a refuge. By the time the case got to court, the husband revealed in an affidavit that he had disposed of it all. In a handwritten note, he later claimed to have donated it randomly. “I did it in an emotional way as I saw the greed of money destroying our marriage,” he wrote in a submission to the court. The man also disclaimed his interest in his dead mother’s estate. The man told the court he gave the money away anonymously to “eliminate the cause of the divorce.” w/ photos

“Mr Smith, 85, completed the 2,800-mile voyage from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean yesterday after 66 days at sea. The former BBC Tomorrow’s World presenter was joined on the adventure by a three-man crew of ‘mature and intrepid gentlemen’, who he recruited through an advert in a newspaper. They set off from the Canaries at the end of January on the An-Tiki – a sail-powered vessel built from 39ft lengths of water and gas pipes. It travelled at an average speed of four knots, with the crew taking turns to keep watch. ‘The word mutiny was only spoken about two or three times a day,’ said Mr Smith. After successfully navigating his way to the Caribbean island of St Maarten, Mr Smith added: ‘Some people say it was mad but what else do you do when you get on in years?” w/ photos

“It’s not your everyday foreign body,” the West Esplanade Veterinary Clinic vet said. But that’s what an X-ray of one his patients, a Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus), revealed. In its attempt to eat a rabbit placed in its cage, the 12-foot-long snake managed to swallow its 3-foot-by-4-foot heating blanket in the process. Rich submitted the X-ray for Veterinary Practice News’ third annual X-ray contest. After considering about 60 entries, judges named it the grand prize winner in the professional category.” w/ photos

“A university professor says he has become addicted to doing press-ups on upturned chopping knives. Xie Guanghai, 57, a physics professor in Luoyang, central China’s Henan Province, claims he does about 4,000 push-ups a day. He said it took him four years to master his technique of doing press-ups on knives fixed into place on a wooden board. Xie has developed thick calluses on his palms which allow him to do his press-ups without cutting his hands. “Along with the growing of my interest in this unusual exercise, the calluses have grown thicker and thicker,” he said. Xie already holds two world records for conventional press-ups, including one for doing 6,012 in a row, and now plans to apply for a place in the record books for blade push-ups.” w/ photo

“These riders have taken horse racing to new limits – by racing each other through the waves on surf boards attached to their horses saddles. Just a short cord attaches the surfer to the horse and rider – who can travel at speeds of up to 35mph through the waves. Daredevil surfers and riders have even taken to racing each other through the surf in beaches in Baule, on the west coast of France. It comes just two weeks after we revealed all on another new equine-related pursuit: horse-boarding. Horse-boarding involves being pulled on a skateboard at up to 35mph. It has become so popular that a training centre has opened and Britain’s first championships are to be held this year.” w/ photo

“Students at a Massachusetts prep school claim to have broken a world record by folding a 13,000-foot length of toilet paper in half 13 times. The 15 students from St. Mark’s School in Southborough executed the feat Sunday in the so-called Infinite Corridor, an 825-foot hallway that connects many of the main buildings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 4-hour operation broke the record of 12 folds set in 2002. “It was hard, backbreaking work,” math teacher James Tanton told The Boston Globe. “It’s like Mount Everest. Of course we had to try.” Tanton has been organizing attempts to break the record for five years. This year, he got MIT’s origami club, OrigaMIT, to gain him the use of the corridor, where they would be free of wind interference.” w/ photos

“College teams are stuck in spring practice, the NFL is fighting over a player lockout, but a new form of football may be just what fans need this season. It’s called the Unicycle Football League, or UFL. It started in San Marcos, Texas in 2008, and it’s quickly growing as a club sport in the area. “It’s basically American-style football played almost entirely on unicycles,” said Marcus Garland, Unicycle Football League founder. While it may look a little silly on first glance, teams take the sport very seriously. The object of the game is the same as American football, except it’s all played while riding a unicycle. Players use flags as a way to tackle, or they just jump off of their bike to take a player down. “Sometimes you can get tangled up in other peoples’ unicycles and you can hit the ground,” said Garland. “You can dive off your unicycle to make the catch, but you can’t have your foot touching the ground. And you have to have ball control before you touch the ground, so you more or less have to eat it.” The 34-year-old started the league and even wrote the rule book. “I had this dream as a kid to play unicycle football because I have been a unicycle rider since I was a kid,” said Garland.” w/ photos