The Austrian province of Vorarlberg instituted large fines to discourage farmers from disposing of dead cattle in alpine meadows by blowing them up, a practice that was little-known until the region's vice-president came across cow parts while on a walk. "It was disgusting," Fritz Amann said. "There were body parts everywhere. Visitors like to think the Austrian hills are alive with the sound of music, not exploding cows."
In Germany, where killing wild boars is illegal, farmers have taken to playing loud music to drive them away. "Madonna didn't work too well... but they can't stand Britney Spears," one farmer said. "The pigs come snorting out and running for the woods."
Investment billionaire Warren Buffett says he will never again invest in airlines after a bad experience with US Airways stock. "The airline business from the time of Wilbur and Orville Wright through 1991 made zero money, net. If capitalists had been present at Kitty Hawk when the Wright Brothers' plane first took off, they should have shot it down."
Adam Jackson of Seattle auctioned off his "hardly used" soul on eBay to a Des Moines, Iowa, woman for US$400.
Alex Fader, a Halifax teen, hoped to make it into the Guinness Book of
Records for cramming 161 straws into his mouth, 10 more than the previous
record, and also planned to take on the record for fastest time drinking a can
of soda. "I think he's a bonehead," his father said.