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THROOP, N.Y., July 29 (UPI) -- Environmental authorities in New York state hot and dry weather conditions caused a large pile of horse poop to spontaneously burst into flames.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation said an officer responded to the town of Throop on July 5 to investigate complaints about a foul odor and smell coming from a large pile of burning horse manure.
The officer discovered the owners of a stable had been storing the horse feces in large piles. The owners said the piles had spontaneously combusted before, but previously the smells and smoke had been carried away from nearby residences by the wind."The flames spread dangerously close to a valley full of dry vegetation and dead trees," the department said. "It took three local fire departments more than two hours to extinguish the burning manure. The stable owners were advised to take measures to mitigate the combustion problem immediately."
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SYDNEY, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Atheists in Australia have been urged not to register "Jedi" as their religion to prevent results from a national census from being skewed to make the country appear more religious.
The Atheist Foundation of Australia shared a Facebook post, featuring cartoons of members of the fictional religion from the Star Wars films, discouraging Australians from marking their religion as "Jedi" or other "joke religions."
"If old religious men in robes don't represent you...don't mark yourself as 'Jedi,'" the post read.According to the foundation, registering as "Jedi" or other joke religions makes the country appear more religious, as they are filed as "not defined" rather than "no religion."
AFA President Kylie Sturgess told the Sydney Morning Herald she and her husband were among the 64,390 Australians who registered as a Jedi in the last census in 2011.
Five years later she warned the nearly 15-year-old joke could lead to improper representation for atheists.
"People shouldn't waste their answer," she said. "Answering the religion question thoughtfully and honestly matters because it benefits all Australians when decisions on how to spend taxpayer dollars are made on sound data that accurately reflects modern-day Australia."
MAINZ, Germany — Strippers dressed as cops are a tale as old as time, which could explain why revelers at one German birthday party got a bit confused when two officers showed up over a noise complaint.
"THIS BOOSTED THE AMUSEMENT OF THE LADIES SKY HIGH"
Police were called to a party tent in the southwestern town of Bendorf on Sunday after a 50th birthday celebration got a bit too loud. That's when the women went wild.
Police were called to a party tent in the southwestern town of Bendorf on Sunday after a 50th birthday celebration got a bit too loud. That's when the women went wild."When the two male officers arrived they were cheered by the crowd" because the partygoers thought strippers had arrived, the police department said in a statement.
Several attempts to explain to the "approximately 10 tipsy women" that the officers were genuine law enforcement "were completely unsuccessful," police added.
Revelers posed for pictures with the officers and female party-goers asked for hugs with the men in uniform. But the two professionals needed something for their police report — routine procedure — and asked for the birthday girl's phone number.
"This boosted the amusement of the ladies sky high," police said in a statement. It added that the women eventually turned down the music once they spotted the police vehicle outside the tent and realized the officers were not there to dance.
From NBC News China -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEIJING — They say true loves waits — and one man who went looking for it online seemingly took that to heart.Alexander Pieter Cirk was due to arrive back home in Holland Tuesday after reportedly spending 10 days at a Chinese airport in a failed bid to meet a woman he'd fallen for on a dating app.
Apparently frustrated by the time and distance separating the couple, the 41-year-old decided to demonstrate his affection by applying for a visa and flying around 5,000 miles to visit her.
Prior to his July 17 departure, Cirk reportedly sent the 26-year-old woman a picture of his flight details.But thousands of miles and hours later when he landed in the Chinese city of Changsha, there was no sign of his online love.
Convinced that she would eventually come for him, Cirk decided to stay at the terminal and patiently waited for her.
Photos of him lounging around and wandering through Changsha Huanghua International Airport soon began to circulate on Chinese social media. Local news reports followed.
After 10 days, authorities reportedly took a frail-looking Cirk to a local hospital for treatment.
A spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told NBC News Tuesday that Cirk had been hospitalized from "Friday 5:30 p.m. until [Monday] evening."
The spokesman added: "We contacted him [Cirk] and his doctor when he was in the hospital and of course we've asked if he needed our assistance but he declined the offer."Chinese and Dutch officials declined to discuss what Cirk was treated for.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a local TV channel eventually tracked down the woman. She expressed surprise that her online boyfriend had been waiting for her to show up. She confessed that she thought Cirk was joking about the trip.
Zhang also claimed that she was scheduled to have plastic surgery and therefore hadn't been able to respond to Cirk's messages when he arrived in China.The woman reportedly added that she hoped to maintain her long-distance relationship with Cirk.
NBC News' Dawn Liu contributed to this report.
Sometimes we just have to accept that there are people like this in the world.
MAINZ, Germany — Strippers dressed as cops are a tale as old as time, which could explain why revelers at one German birthday party got a bit confused when two officers showed up over a noise complaint.
"THIS BOOSTED THE AMUSEMENT OF THE LADIES SKY HIGH"
Police were called to a party tent in the southwestern town of Bendorf on Sunday after a 50th birthday celebration got a bit too loud. That's when the women went wild.
Police were called to a party tent in the southwestern town of Bendorf on Sunday after a 50th birthday celebration got a bit too loud. That's when the women went wild."When the two male officers arrived they were cheered by the crowd" because the partygoers thought strippers had arrived, the police department said in a statement.
Several attempts to explain to the "approximately 10 tipsy women" that the officers were genuine law enforcement "were completely unsuccessful," police added.
Revelers posed for pictures with the officers and female party-goers asked for hugs with the men in uniform. But the two professionals needed something for their police report — routine procedure — and asked for the birthday girl's phone number.
"This boosted the amusement of the ladies sky high," police said in a statement. It added that the women eventually turned down the music once they spotted the police vehicle outside the tent and realized the officers were not there to dance.
would have been funny to see
SYDNEY, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Atheists in Australia have been urged not to register "Jedi" as their religion to prevent results from a national census from being skewed to make the country appear more religious.
The Atheist Foundation of Australia shared a Facebook post, featuring cartoons of members of the fictional religion from the Star Wars films, discouraging Australians from marking their religion as "Jedi" or other "joke religions."
"If old religious men in robes don't represent you...don't mark yourself as 'Jedi,'" the post read.According to the foundation, registering as "Jedi" or other joke religions makes the country appear more religious, as they are filed as "not defined" rather than "no religion."
AFA President Kylie Sturgess told the Sydney Morning Herald she and her husband were among the 64,390 Australians who registered as a Jedi in the last census in 2011.
Five years later she warned the nearly 15-year-old joke could lead to improper representation for atheists.
"People shouldn't waste their answer," she said. "Answering the religion question thoughtfully and honestly matters because it benefits all Australians when decisions on how to spend taxpayer dollars are made on sound data that accurately reflects modern-day Australia."
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A Hawaiian company offering helicopter tours captured footage of a lava lake in the very active Kilauea volcano showing the image of a "smiley face."
The video, filmed by Mick Kalber of Paradise Helicopters, shows the circular lava lake glowing orange in the shape of a smiling emoji.
"This is a lava lake that is within the Pu'u 'O'o vent. The vent itself is much, much larger than the lake. The lake is on a raised portion of the bottom of the vent on the western side," the tour company said on Facebook.Lava from the Pu'u O'o Crater reached the ocean last week for the first time since 2013.
THROOP, N.Y., July 29 (UPI) -- Environmental authorities in New York state hot and dry weather conditions caused a large pile of horse poop to spontaneously burst into flames.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation said an officer responded to the town of Throop on July 5 to investigate complaints about a foul odor and smell coming from a large pile of burning horse manure.
The officer discovered the owners of a stable had been storing the horse feces in large piles. The owners said the piles had spontaneously combusted before, but previously the smells and smoke had been carried away from nearby residences by the wind."The flames spread dangerously close to a valley full of dry vegetation and dead trees," the department said. "It took three local fire departments more than two hours to extinguish the burning manure. The stable owners were advised to take measures to mitigate the combustion problem immediately."
Can you smell something burning?
From NBC News China -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEIJING — They say true loves waits — and one man who went looking for it online seemingly took that to heart.Alexander Pieter Cirk was due to arrive back home in Holland Tuesday after reportedly spending 10 days at a Chinese airport in a failed bid to meet a woman he'd fallen for on a dating app.
Apparently frustrated by the time and distance separating the couple, the 41-year-old decided to demonstrate his affection by applying for a visa and flying around 5,000 miles to visit her.
Prior to his July 17 departure, Cirk reportedly sent the 26-year-old woman a picture of his flight details.But thousands of miles and hours later when he landed in the Chinese city of Changsha, there was no sign of his online love.
Convinced that she would eventually come for him, Cirk decided to stay at the terminal and patiently waited for her.
Photos of him lounging around and wandering through Changsha Huanghua International Airport soon began to circulate on Chinese social media. Local news reports followed.
After 10 days, authorities reportedly took a frail-looking Cirk to a local hospital for treatment.
A spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told NBC News Tuesday that Cirk had been hospitalized from "Friday 5:30 p.m. until [Monday] evening."
The spokesman added: "We contacted him [Cirk] and his doctor when he was in the hospital and of course we've asked if he needed our assistance but he declined the offer."Chinese and Dutch officials declined to discuss what Cirk was treated for.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a local TV channel eventually tracked down the woman. She expressed surprise that her online boyfriend had been waiting for her to show up. She confessed that she thought Cirk was joking about the trip.
Zhang also claimed that she was scheduled to have plastic surgery and therefore hadn't been able to respond to Cirk's messages when he arrived in China.The woman reportedly added that she hoped to maintain her long-distance relationship with Cirk.
NBC News' Dawn Liu contributed to this report.
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A man and his pet giraffe walk into a bar and start drinking. As the night goes on, they get drunk, and the giraffe finally passes out. The man decides to go home.
As he's leaving, the man is approached by the barkeeper who says, "Hey, you're not gonna leave that lyin' here, are ya?"
"Hmph," says the man. "That's not a lion -- it's a giraffe."