This is a tale of mystery, fear and wonder: could a rumour be true, even if it sounded like something from a horror story? Years ago, maybe as long as forty years ago, people in certain parts of the world started reporting goats being killed by a strange and mysterious creature that sucked their blood and left them for dead. The story, the myth, quickly gathered momentum with farmers proclaiming it to be the “Chupacabra” or “Goat Sucker” as it was called in North America. But of course nobody who had heard the story thought it could actually be real, this creature of the night that looked like a dog with two giant fangs that protruded from its mouth. How could it be? It simply defied logic that the creature could have remained undiscovered for so long.

Then, out of nowhere, pictures surfaced and several years ago a video appeared on the internet: a real video, apparently, that showed just what so many had been waiting for for years. It showed a policeman in his vehicle chasing an animal down a trail in Texas. The creature had short front legs and ran like a dog, and was black…the colour and shape and size of the mysterious Goat sucker. The animal is real, according to many, but still many more don’t believe it. What will it take to prove the animal’s existence? But one thing is for sure…evidence for the creature is becoming more and more difficult to dismiss as every day passes by, and more and more people carry around Smartphones with the ability to record video at a moment’s notice. It would seem that the animal that started life as a rumour in Puerto Rico may well be reality after all…

Many people have got a tattoo, on their arms, legs, backs or on parts they don’t want to talk about! And many have had hundreds of different designs, sometimes a heart to proclaim their love for someone, or a little symbol.

However one woman seems to love tattoos so much, a whopping 95% of her body is covered in them, which has earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, reported by blurtit.

Julia Gnuse has tattoos extending throughout her body, nearly every body part is covered tattoos except her feet. Many people have one or two tattoos, but Ms. Gnuse has over 400 tattoos covering her body.

Don’t even mention laser tattoo removal to her because the reason behind Ms. Gnuse’s obsession of tattoos is a medical condition. She suffers from Porphyria, which causes the skin to blister when exposed to sunlight. The blisters cause scarring. Despite the tattoos not being able to correct such scarring, they help to cover up the scars.

Ms. Gnuse, on her condition said “ A friend who is a plastic surgeon suggested tattooing my skin the same colour as the scarring I had, to see if we can match my pale-looking skin. That didn’t work. We tried it.
It was very difficult to match that. So I had the idea of a colourful tattoo, then I got hooked. I got addicted.” She has been nicknamed “Illustrated Lady”due to her tattooed body.

In the UK, the most tattooed person is Isobel Varley, who was born in 1937. She has held her Guinness World Record for the World’s most tattooed senior citizen having so much tattoos at the age of 72. Her love of tattoos started in the 80’s after visiting a tattoo convention, which lead to numerous tattoos after.

Superstition can drive some people to extreme lengths. For Selvakumar, a 33 year old farmer in India, his superstition led him to marry a dog!

After stoning two dogs to death and hanging them from a tree over fifteen years ago, Selvakumar claimed to have lost feeling in his hands and feet and became partially deaf in one ear, which he believes is a curse due to his sins. After consulting doctors, they could not determine the cause of these ailments nor find any first aid supplies to help releave the pain, so Selvakumar decided to seek alternative forms of treatment. Turning to an astrologer, Selvakumar was told that the only way to atone for his sins of killing two dogs was to marry one.

The choice of brides was a stray female dog named Selvi. Before marrying Selvi, Selvakumar and his family bathed her and dressed her in an orange sari (the traditional garb for Indian women) and a floral garland. The ceremony was taken very seriously, with a Hindu priest conducting the ceremony in a temple with many guests, both friends and family.

Selvi apparently attempted to flee the wedding after being startled by the large crowd, but after a small search she was quickly returned. After the ceremony, the family had a rather large feast, while poor little Selvi only received a bun.

Although the marriage was designed to lift the curse, Selvakumar still intends to marry a proper woman once he finds the right girl. It may seem like a large sham, but these types of things are taken very seriously in India, and specifically by Selvakumar himself.

This is not as rare as some may believe. In India, it is not uncommon for people to marry dogs to lift curses similar to the one experienced by Selvakumar.

It is unknown if Selvakumar has regained feeling in his hands and feet, or if his hearing had returned.

Everyone is on the internet today. Ten to fifteen years ago it may have been a rare luxury to have the internet, but today everyone uses the net, be it on the computer, mobile phone or on another gadget like an iPod Touch. People are taking advantage of cheap internet with speedy browsing and higher download limits. One woman in particular is Beverley McCartney, 71, who wanted to connect to the internet in her village in Carmarthenshire.

However she was in a shock after receiving the bill to set her up with internet. BT charged her £129,613.54 plus VAT, which would make it in excess of £150,000 to get her up and running. BT also offered to pay a measly 6% of the cost themselves, which would be around £8,000 but is still negligable to the full cost.

Initally Mrs. McCartney though that BT had made an error when calculating the amount and called BT up to clarify. But she said on talking to BT,”I phoned BT and said surely this is a typing error and the girl said ’No, there’s been no mistake, other people have had bills for much more than this’.”

A spokesperson for BT, Chris Orum said “If it’s just one individual person and it requires upgrading the network for one person, no company would cover that. There can be very rare cases where additional charges need to be applied because of an exceptional amount of work required to the network in order to provide service.”

A fuming Mrs. McCartney said, on her village, Salem, “It’s outrageous,” she fumed. “I’m not on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere - it’s rural but not a wilderness.”

Unfortunately, despite the 6% decrease, Mrs. McCartney will not be getting broadband saying “I couldn’t afford £2,000, let alone £150,000. "And let’s be honest, if you had that much money to spend I’m sure a nice trip to chalets val d isere would be higher on your list than fast internet!

Long ago, I became quite sick of watching and reading mainstream news. The papers are filled with so many ads, it is difficult to find articles in the first place, and once I did, they were all fluff and useless. If it wasn’t a story about someone who is famous for absolutely no reason and the prices of boob jobs that they have had for the fifth time this year, then it is something completely unsubstantiated. How many times have you read a news article that stated a fact followed by the line “according to reports”? Every news article in the world, from the New York Times to Reuters, uses this line. Have you ever considered following up on those “reports”? Where are they? Who made these reports? Are they even published anywhere? Nine times out of ten, they are nowhere to be found.

Because of this, I prefer reading articles that are a little less serious, perhaps even odd. My favourite of late is when I read that the Hadron Collider was attacked by a man who claimed to be from the future. The article stated that he was dressed “strangely” with far too much tweed. This is enough to make my day start in the right way. The one thing that I question is that this article was released on April 1^st. Does this mean it was just a practical joke? After trying to find other sources for this story, I came up empty-handed; either way, that was a pleasure to read and a story that I will remember.

Another great odd piece of news I picked up recently was about a 68 year old Korean woman in Seoul who finally got her driver’s license–on her 690th attempt! She took the test every day for over five years, and then finally passed her written test. It took her only a puny ten attempts to pass her road test. But good for her! Persistence finally paid off!

With all the news agencies in the world concerned with the global economy or war, it is nice to read strange or quirky news. A smile on my face is a great way to start a day, especially when I’m not thinking about the plights of the world.