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An Australian couple found an exciting new use for a blow-up doll when they turned an inflatable sex toy into a raft. But they had to be rescued when the woman lost her grip on the doll in the rough waters of the Yarra River outside Melbourne on Sunday.
[Story as reported by Ed Mazza, aolnews.com] ![1294676169826[1]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_D46dU0ZjNr4/TS1xW-hAhdI/AAAAAAAAARY/tgpsGVa57rw/s1600-h/1294676169826%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "1294676169826[1]")
Holger Hollemann, AFP / Getty Images
Of course she's unhappy. Who likes getting weighed right after the holidays? This is Agathe, a cane toad, and she's sitting on a toy scale during an annual animal inventory at the Hanover Zoo in Germany on Jan. 5. Agathe weighs a slight hop over 4 pounds.
Cane toads like Agathe, on the other hand, are an invasive species in many areas, and their introduction into Australia in the 1930s as a form of natural pest control was a spectacular failure.
They didn't eat the beetle grubs they were brought in to control, and they quickly became a pest themselves, as documented in the 1988 film "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History."
Now, every March 29 is designated "Toad Day Out" in some parts of the country, and Australians are encouraged to hunt and kill the frogs to "celebrate."
Last year's event took about 10,000 frogs off the map -- literally of a ton of them, according to local media reports.
Cane toads are also licked in Australia -- yes, licked -- as a recreational drug, because of the supposed hallucinatory and stimulatory effects of the frog's venom.
But at least one expert says that's all hype and no hop.
"The effects recorded are more like symptoms of mild poisoning than full-blown hallucination," Paul Dillon of Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Center told the Sydney Morning Herald.
On the other hand, toad lickers risk salmonella poisoning, so let that be a lesson to you: No matter what you read on the Internet, never lick a frog.
Huang Yuanfan, 84, of Ziyuan, China, is the latest person to report an unusual growth protruding from the head. His horn began growing two years ago and has reached a length of 3 inches, according to Metro.co.uk and other British news sites.
![1294411951122[1]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_D46dU0ZjNr4/TSvZr6hJN1I/AAAAAAAAARQ/PdnqSvcoxmI/s1600-h/1294411951122%5B1%5D%5B5%5D.jpg "1294411951122[1]")
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When it began as a small bump, Huang said he tried picking at it and even filing it, but the horn persevered and kept growing.
"Doctors say they don't know what caused it, but if they try to take it off it will just come back," Huang told the press. "I try to hide it beneath a hat, but if it gets much longer it will be sticking out the top."
Tor Borg and his dog Jackie, who was dubbed Hitler by Borg's wife as it raised its paw for the Nazi salute. The Nazis started an investigation against the dog's owner, a 41-year-old wholesale merchant in Finland.
Recently discovered WWII documents have revealed Nazi’s obsession focused on a Finnish mutt, Janice, who saluted Germany's Fuehrer.
The totalitarian state that dominated most of Europe was unable to do much about the canine's paw-raising parody.
In the months preceding Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, Berlin's Foreign Office commanded its diplomats in the Nazi-friendly country to gather evidence on the dog and its owner — and even plotted to destroy the owner's pharmaceutical business.
Historians were unaware of the scheme until some 30 files containing correspondence and diplomatic cables were found by a researcher in the Foreign Office archives.
Klaus Hillenbrand, an expert on the Nazi period who examined the documents, called the episode "completely bizarre."
"Just months before the Nazis launched their attack on the Soviet Union, they had nothing better to do than to obsess about this dog," he told The Associated Press.
Jackie, the Dalmatian mix, was dubbed Hitler by her owners – Tor Borg and wife, Josephine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments - because of the way Jackie raised a paw high in the air, much like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of "Heil Hitler!"
Borg was ordered to the German Embassy and, when questioned, tried to play down the accusations, saying the paw-raising only happened a few times in 1933 — shortly after Hitler came to power.
Borg assured the Nazi diplomats that he never did anything "that could be seen as an insult against the German Reich," according to the documents.
After a seemingly intense and meticulous investigation involving such ministries as the Foreign Office, the Economy Ministry and even Hitler's Chancellory — the ministries announced that the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben, which supplied Borg's wholesale trade with pharmaceuticals, agreed to cut all ties, which would have destroyed his business.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office was looking for ways to bring Borg to trial for insulting Hitler. But in the end, none of the witnesses were willing to repeat their accusations in front of a judge, thus no charges were brought against Borg or his wife.
According to the Chinese zodiac calendar, Feb. 3 will mark the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, and some people -- like this diver in South Korea -- have started celebrating a little bit early. Divers at the COEX Aquarium in Seoul put on bunny suits and took a swim on Dec. 31 to set the tone for the Year of the Rabbit.
Divers at the COEX Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea, dressed like rabbits and swam with a school of fish on Friday for an early celebration of the new year, which is observed -- with some variation -- throughout much of Asia.
The Chinese zodiac calendar follows a 12-year cycle, meaning the Year of the Rabbit might be your year if you were born in 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987 or 1999.
Believers in Chinese astrology say the Year of the Rabbit, sometimes called the Year of the Hare, ought to be more peaceful than the highly volatile Year of the Tiger.
Though some predict that the Year of the Rabbit will be more calm than last year, that doesn't mean you can't ring in the new year with a major party. Expect large Chinese New Year parades in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City.
Guo Liliang, Xinhua / Corbis
Jin Songhao stands in a plastic box during a cold endurance competition in Zhangjiajie, China, on Monday. He reportedly beat the existing record for the longest ice bath by immersing himself in ice for 120 minutes.
Clad only in swim trunks, China's Jin Songhao reportedly endured a freezing-cold ice bath for two hours -- potentially setting a new world record for direct, full-body contact with ice.
Current Guinness World Record holder Chen Kecai of China competed alongside Jin in Monday's contest in China's Hunan province. Kecai reportedly lasted 118 minutes, besting his record-setting 2010 showing by 10 minutes.
But officials pulled Chen out of the box when monitoring devices showed the 53-year-old's body temperature falling, according to ITN News. Both competitors outlasted Dutch citizen Wim Hof, who in a separate event held in Hong Kong reportedly managed to stay in an icy bath for 115 minutes earlier this week.
Though Hof wasn't able to set a new record, that doesn't mean he's been frozen out of the record books. The 51-year-old remains a Guinness World Record holder for running the fastest half marathon barefoot on snow.
Reuters – Garbage bags which broke the fall
New York (Reuters) – A man attempting to commit suicide jumped from a ninth story window was alive on Monday after a pile of garbage bags broke his fall.
Vangelis Kapatos, 26, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition after jumping from his apartment on West 45th Street on Sunday afternoon, authorities said. Kapatos most likely will not face any charges since he did not leave a suicide note prior to jumping.
Trash has not been collected since the December 26 storm dumped more than a foot and a half of snow on the city. Mounds of garbage several feet high line many sidewalks.
"Everybody is complaining that the trash hasn't been picked up," Kapatos' aunt said on Monday. "But me, I'm thankful that it was never picked up."
Hundreds of villagers flocked to a wedding ceremony Monday between a 16-foot (4.8-meter), 200-pound (90-kilogram) female python and her slightly smaller mate — both believed to be magic snakes that bring prosperity and peace.
The two-hour ceremony in Svay Rolum village, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the capital Phnom Penh, ended with two Buddhist monks blessing the pair and villagers showering them with flowers as wedding music played.
