“Residents in the Chinese city of Tianjin have become so fed up with the local government doing nothing about an uncapped manhole on one of the local roads they have placed a giant green hand in the hole to alert approaching drivers. The hand is in fact a discarded green sofa found by one of the locals and placed in the manhole to warn motorists approaching the hole in the road. ‘I was baffled, thinking that the Incredible Hulk was underneath,’ said local Li Dong. The number of accidents has increased since the manhole lid disappeared over a month ago. Despite numerous letters of complaints to government officials, including media exposure about the hole, no action has been taken.” w/ photo

“An 18-year-old man was charged with animal cruelty and resisting an officer after witnesses reported the suspect had a headless duck in one hand and a knife in the other. A resident of the Addison Landing Apartments, off Normandy Boulevard on the Westside, flagged down an officer Sunday night to say a man was killing ducks. According to an arrest report, when the officer approached Alexander Main, there was a headless duck on the patio and blood and feathers on Main’s hands and clothing. The report says that when the officer asked Main to put his hands behind his back, he took off running into an apartment, where he was apprehended. According to the report, witnesses said Main was attempting to show off when he captured and killed a duck, saying he planned on cooking it.” w/ photo

“Assembling more than 4,000 autographed baseballs, it turns out, may not have been as tough a task for Dennis Schrader as proving the collection was a world record. The Guinness Book of World Records originally rejected Schrader’s claim because the signatures on all 4,020 balls couldn’t be authenticated. About a year ago, he started up his campaign again in earnest. He made copies of authenticity documents for the balls he got at auctions and such, and prepared his own papers for signatures he obtained himself. He even had to get an accountant to do an inventory, and included letters from St. Petersburg’s mayor and other prominent people who have seen the collection. “I had to have videos, I had to have photographs, along with the inventory list,” he says. “It was $119 worth of postage going to London. And four days after it got there, they notified me that I have the world’s record. I have the certificate to prove it — finally.” w/ photo

“When Taieri farmer Graeme Wallace brought a mob of ewes and lambs in for tailing this week, he thought the wool was being pulled over his eyes. ‘I thought, ‘What the hell is this? Is it a goat or is it a lamb?… No, it’s a 50-50′. He thought fleetingly there was a chance the ewe in question could have had a dead lamb and adopted a kid but then decided against it. With the body of a lamb, but the head, legs and bleat of a goat, the incredibly rare male hybrid was definitely ‘a cross between the two’. Mr Wallace, who had not noticed it during earlier daily lambing rounds – not that he was looking out for a geep – said it would have been sired by one of the many feral goats on the property, near Allanton. It was his father who told him that there might be such as thing as a geep. He looked it up on the internet that night and “sure enough” they do exist.” w/ photos

“A mechanic was the one doing the surgery at an Ohio animal facility when a woman drove in with a cat stuck behind her minivan’s dashboard. WBNS-TV reports the mechanic had to take apart the dash during a three-hour rescue operation Thursday in the Columbus suburb of Hilliard. Driver Nehal Dhruve says she hit the cat with her van and decided to take it to the local humane society. The brown and black cat wouldn’t stay on the van’s seat but instead hopped down and climbed up under the dashboard. Mechanic Daryl McKay cut his hands trying to free the feline, so an animal control staffer with smaller hands took over and pulled it out.” w/ photo + video

“This cheeky young kangaroo won’t be misbehaving again after what looked like a stern telling off from his long-suffering mum. In one picture she grabs the joey by the shoulders in what looks like an attempt to shake some sense into him. In another she towers over the little chap to show him who’s boss – no wonder he’s feeling so jumpy. Rumors that he had been ‘roo-d to his ma could not be verified. The intimate scenes between mum and baby were caught on camera by John Eastcott and Yva Momatiuk. The couple struck it lucky with the fantastic shots while visiting the Yuraygir National Park in New South Wales, Australia. In the animal kingdom mums use different methods of rearing their young depending on the occasion.” w/ photo

“His mission is to impress the ladies – but Kai the rhino was startled by the attentions of this over-friendly ostrich. The two-tonne beast’s back legs left the ground when the bird pecked at flies and insects on his hide. ‘Ostriches are known for their lack of intelligence, their brain is smaller than one of their eyeballs, and this bird probably thought it was being friendly,’ said Abi Crowley, marketing manager for Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire. ‘Kai has never met an ostrich and it’s safe to say this encounter startled him.’ Kai, aged ten, is the newest addition to the park, brought in to mate with females Mkuzi and Mtuba-tuba.” w/ photo

“Ever wanted to know how many grains of sand there are on an entire beach? Well, researchers have just started counting on a Cornish stretch of sand. The team from England, America and Australia is using a 40m beach to assess coastal erosion with more than 100 state-of-the-art instruments that record water levels, flow speeds, rates of sand movement and beach change. The project of counting the sand grains will be carried out until October 22 and the results will be analyzed to determine whether coastal erosion is causing beaches to shrink or be displaced. Prof Gerd Masselink, of Plymouth University, said: ‘This very comprehensive field experiment has been five years in the making and will provide new fundamental knowledge on how sand moves on beaches. ‘This information will help develop computer models of sediment transport and coastal erosion and will improve predictions of how beaches respond to climate change.” w/ photos

“Five women – the eldest 80 years old – were arrested for dumping garbage in front of the Bank of America Chicago offices downtown in a protest. The women were protesting over the buildup of trash at vacant buildings in Chicago, which were foreclosed and are now held by BOA. They dumped the garbage in bags in front of the BOA building at 135 LaSalle St. The protesters, from the group Action Now, point to the city’s new Vacant Property Ordinance, which holds banks responsible for securing and boarding up their vacant, foreclosed properties got the lenders to pay attention. “Since BOA will not go to Chicago’s neighborhoods and clean-up their vacant properties, Action Now members are bringing the neighborhood destruction to the bank,” the group said in a news release. The women cleaned up a vacant property a East Garfield Park neighborhood, and dropped off the trash at the bank, while others marched outside and held signs.” w/ photo

“A naked runner, who has been branded narcissistic, has been banned from taking part in the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, US. Brett Henderson was banned from taking part in the sporting event in the future after being found guilty of public indecency and disorderly conduct for running naked during the event on May 1. Henderson was spotted by police running naked and refused to stop when asked, leading police to stop him with a Taser. According to his mother, he had borrowed shorts for the event but they were too big and kept falling down. Assistant City Solicitor Karla Burtch branded the runner ‘narcissistic’ and said that he had spoilt the event for families taking part. ‘It was obviously a disconnect to think running in the Flying Pig naked would be anything close to appropriate. I think it was designed to draw attention to himself,’ she is quoted by Cincinnati.com as saying.” w/ photos + video