WEIRD NEWS

Be Nice to Your Aging Parents

In Arizona, 92-year-old Anna Blessing's son (who is 72) wanted to put her in an assisted living facility to live out her final days. She didn't want that to happen so she confronted him in his bedroom, pulled out the two pistols she had concealed in her robe and fired several rounds striking and killing her son. According to a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office press release she then pointed the weapon at the son's girlfriend who managed to disarm her after a struggle. Police say that Blessing told them she thought about killing herself after the girlfriend left the room, but she lacked the weapons to do so. She also said her son wanted her to leave their Fountain Hills home because she had become "difficult to live with." She reportedly told her son: "You took my life, so I'm taking yours." Blessing has been charged with first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and kidnapping. She is being held on $500,000 bond. (FOX News)

Professional Mourner?

Some people find it hard to cry when their loved-ones die. That doesn't go over so well in the African country of Ghana, where wailing and mourning are considered a big part of funerals. As a matter of fact, the amount of mourners and the level of wailing is often indicative of the deceased' social standing or how beloved they were by their family and community. So it's no wonder that some Ghanaians are willing to pay professional mourners to cry on their behalf. Ami Dokli is the leader of one of the several groups of professional mourners in Ghana. In a recent interview with BBC Africa, she said that some people cannot cry at their relatives' funerals, so they rely on her and her team to do the wailing. Dokli and the other women in her team are all widows who, after their husbands died, decided to come together to help others give their loved-ones a proper send-off to the afterlife. But crying for strangers is not the easiest thing in the world, so professional mourners charge a fee for their services, the size of which is in direct relation to the size of the funeral. If it's a big funeral, their tears cost more. Well of course they do. (BBC)

You Stink!

Funny how you never think your own farts smell that bad. Same goes for body odor. While the rest of the room is looking for the exits, you don't smell a thing. Thankfully, Japanese wellness device maker Tanita just unveiled its newest creation, a handheld smell checker that analyzes body odor and ranks its intensity on a scale of 1 to 10. Called the ES-100, Tanita's smell-sensing device was inspired by the company's range of alcohol breath analyzers. They basically adapted their technology to check for odor-producing particulate matter instead of alcohol and the ES-100 was born. It's super-easy to use. Just flip it open and point the built-in sensor toward the problematic areas of your body. It reportedly takes about 10 seconds to collect and analyze data, after which it will display a numerical result on its small LED display. Getting a 0 means you don't smell, 1 to 4 are acceptable levels of body odor, 5 to 9 should really have you concerned, and we can only assume a 10 means you're a walking biohazard. Interestingly, it also works on cologne. So if you feel that too much cologne is just as bad as the musky smell of perspiration, you can use the handheld device to check if you've overdone it with the perfume. The ES-100 was commercially launched this week, with pricing being left up to retailers. (Oddity Central)

You Stole My Rain, My Snow, and My Clouds!

Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali is the head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, but he may need a checkup from the neck up! He apparently is accusing Israel of stealing Iran's clouds while also working to ensure that whatever clouds do make it into Iranian air space are unable to release rain or snow. Relations between Iran and Israel have always been tense, but this seems to be entering the area of ridiculousness. Jalali tried to back up his claims by citing a survey showing that all mountainous areas above 2,200 meters between Afghanistan and the Mediterranean are covered in snow, except those in Iran. The good General was quoted as saying, "Israel and another country in the region have joint teams which work to ensure clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain. On top of that, we are facing the issue of cloud and snow theft." (Oddity Central)

Very Tragic Case of I Told Ya So

In Ardmore, Alabama, Debra Ann Rivera asked a judge to please take away her ex-husbands guns, warning that he was extremely dangerous. Limestone County Circuit Judge Chad Wise initially granted a protection-from-abuse order March 1, but then rescinded it on April 10. That proved to be a very bad decision. Now, the ex-husband, 43-year-old Darwin Brazier, is in jail on murder charges after allegedly shooting his Rivera and two others, killing all three. Also killed were his ex-wife's husband, Radex Rivera, and their roommate, Timothy James Hayward-Boger. The sheriff's office said Brazier shot 30 high-powered rounds near the scene before leaving and later was found by a SWAT unit with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. (The Hill)

Netflix is Now More Popular Than TV!

Ask any millennial and they'll tell you: Netflix is TV now. A new study by investment firm Cowen & Co. backs that up finding that the streaming video service is now the most popular way to watch entertainment content using a TV (as opposed to a mobile device or computer). From the survey of 2,500 American adults conducted in May, Cowen & Co. asked, "Which platforms do you use most often to view video content on TV?" Netflix earned the top spot with 27 percent of total respondents, followed by basic cable at 20 percent, broadcast at 18 percent and YouTube at 11 percent. Netflix's dominance was even more pronounced among millennials aged 18-34, with 39.7 percent of respondents in that demographic saying Netflix is usually their first choice, well ahead of streaming competitors Hulu (7.6 percent) and Amazon (3.4 percent) as well as second-place finisher YouTube (17 percent) and linear TV (a combined 23.6 percent for broadcast, basic and premium cable). This study seems to be further evidence that we're heading toward an all on-demand entertainment future. Prepare yourselves accordingly. (TVGuide.com)

What the What?

Perhaps you heard about Rabiot the octopus. He's the one who appeared to have correctly predicted two of Japan's World Cup results. But he won't be doing that any longer. His Japanese owner, Kimo Abe, decided he'd make more money by selling the octopus meat at the market than he would by being the owner of an Internet celebrity so Rabiot is no longer with us. He quickly rose to Internet fame after correctly predicted Japan's first win against Colombia as well as the team's draw to Senegal early in the World Cup tournament. Bye, bye Rabiot, we're sure you were delicious. (FOX News)

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