Bed behavior
A theater in Chile launched a play that invites members of the audience to become part of the act – by climbing in a bed big enough for 40 members plus the actors. The randomly selected spectators are required to wear blindfolds during the entirety of the hour-long production. During that time, members of the theater group perform different experiences – including playing different sounds, whispering in ears, touching their bodies with warm towels and massaging them with oils – in an attempt to get emotional reactions from the participants. A spokesman for Aire Theater Company said people recounted the emergence of long lost memories.
Gravity defying granny
Helen Koton, 79, was walking across a drawbridge in Hallandale Beach, Florida when the operator decided to raise the bridge without asking her. She clung to the railing and her life as the bridge rose 100 feet in the air over a canal, leaving her purse to slide down and snag around her ankle. Drivers waiting to cross the chasm noticed the retired teacher using her eraser toughened hands to hang on and alerted the bridge operator. Koton received only minor bruises to her face and nose as a result of jumping down while the bridge was still being lowered.
Chairs grow on trees
A Chinese man recently patented a technique for growing chairs. The man, from the Liaoning province, molds the branches of elm trees into shape while they’re still growing. He uses elm because the wood is more plaint and doesn’t snap as easily as other trees. He said it takes about five years to grow – from sapling to finishes product – and requires trimming and guiding to make a product worth sitting in and he hopes one day the whole world will grow their chairs instead of buying them in stores.
Arrest me
Prisoners in a Mexican maximum-security prison are complaining recently after the loss of several privileges – including sex and pizza. An investigation at La Palma Prison near Mexico City revealed a host of other illegal benefits – such as the use of flat screen TVs and cell phones. Now that the benefits are gone, prisoners complain that they are being treated like dogs, and even went so far as to take out an ad in La Reforma – one of Mexico’s leading newspapers – complaining about their situation and appealing to Mexican President Vincent Fox to right the wrongs, restore their old privileges and to cease what they called the inhuman way there were being treated.
Like a fish needs a bicycle
In a recent study, 10 out of 11 women who used a electronic implant named Orgasmatron – named after a machine in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie Barbarella – reported increased feelings of sexual pleasure. Dr. Stuart Meloy, the American pain consultant who invented the device, said that while this was only the first research group, he thinks his device has found success. Test subject Mary Clegg, 52, reported that during her first usage the sensation caused her leg to fly into the air. The device is implanted in the buttocks, costs about $18,000 and uses a remote control to send tiny pulses of electricity through the spinal nerves to cause orgasm. Melroy originally invented the device to ease back pain, but became aware of the positive side effect when a patient suggested he teach her husband to perform like the implants.
Feeling froggy?
Police officers pulling over truck drivers violating traffic laws in the Indian state of Bihar are starting to hand out humiliating punishments instead of a day in court. For the most popular punishment – leapfrog – offenders must squat on their haunches, hold their ears and hop for about a third of a mile and chant the name of their favorite political leader while they bounce.
Leap of faith
Ashriward Ayre and Bharti Patel have decided to share their love for each other and their love for mountaineering with friends by combining the two and having a wedding ceremony at 2,000 feet. Ropes between Duke’s Nose and Duchess Peak at Lonavala, India will suspend the couple as they move toward each other – a Hindu priest suspended by another rope will deliver the 45-minute ceremony. Their 150 guests will witness the couple tie the knot from a plateau on Duke’s Nose. Ayre said he rappelled down Duke’s Nose three years ago and remembers the marvelous feeling. He said he chose the site because he wanted the marriage to be at a place where everyone else in the world will look up to them.