"An employee's posting of frying an egg in a pan in Death Valley was intended to demonstrate how hot it can get here, with the recommendation that if you do this, use a pan or tin foil and properly dispose of the contents," the park said on its Facebook page last week.

"However, the Death Valley NP maintenance crew has been busy cleaning up eggs cracked directly on the sidewalk, including egg cartons and shells strewn across the parking lot.

"This is your national park, please put trash in the garbage or recycle bins provided and don't crack eggs on the sidewalks," it said.

Death Valley, located in California and Nevada, will soon celebrate the 100th anniversary of its posting the world heat record -- 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius) -- on July 10, 1913.

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/weird/hot-enough-to-fry-an-egg-dont-try-it-in-death-valley

Organisers hope a number of public vasectomies can be performed in Adelaide later in the year.

The surgeon involved and academics will take questions from the audience during the procedure.

The Royal Institution of Australia's Lisa Bailey said the organisation was keen to encourage wider and more open discussion on male contraception and population control.

"How vasectomy fits into cultural practices both in Australia and around the world and, to go along with all of this, we will actually be having live vasectomies performed on stage," Ms Bailey said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-09/vasectomies-in-front-of-live-audience-planned-adelaide/4807668

Over 20 years ago, a landscaper in eastern Germany discovered a formation of trees in a forest in the shape of a swastika. Since then, a number of other forest swastikas have been found in Germany and beyond, but the mystery of their origins persist.

Blame it on the larches. Brandenburg native Günter Reschke was the first one to notice their unique formation, according to a 2002 article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. To be more precise, however, it was the new intern at Reschke's landscaping company, Ökoland Dederow, who discovered the trees in 1992 as he was completing a typically thankless intern task: searching aerial photographs for irrigation lines.

Instead, he found a small group of 140 larches standing in the middle of dense forest, surrounded by hundreds of other trees. But there was a crucial difference: all the others were pine trees. The larches, unlike the pines, changed color in the fall, first to yellow, then brown. And when they were seen from a certain height, it wasn't difficult to recognize the pattern they formed. It was quite striking, in fact.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/horticultural-hate-mystery-forest-swastikas/story?id=19588288#.Udw-g77n-Uk

On a good night, attending an IronPigs game will get you a Tyler Cloyd bobblehead or maybe a beach towel. But Aug. 20, you might get a chance to die in style.

In their ongoing mission to turn sensitive issues into a reason to watch baseball and eat hot dogs, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and a sponsor, Reichel Funeral Home, are offering one lucky fan a free funeral with all the trimmings.

Celebration of Life night will give a $10,000 funeral — embalming and body removal included — to the fan who writes the best 200-word essay on his or her ideal funeral and attends the Aug. 20 game.

There's apparently no requirement that the winner drop over immediately after the game.

"The best fans in minor league baseball deserve the opportunity to win a once-in-a-lifetime giveaway," IronPigs General Manager Kurt Landes said. "Unquestionably, this is the most highly coveted 'out-of-the-box' promotion in IronPigs history.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/mc-allentown-iron-pigs-funeral-20130626,0,4916441.story

A gorilla sculpture, painted as musician Freddie Mercury, has been removed after a copyright complaint.

Organisers of Go Go Gorillas, a public art trail in Norwich, were contacted by Queen's manager Jim Beach on behalf of the Freddie Mercury estate.

The estate claimed the suit "worn" by the gorilla breached copyright.

It asked the Freddie "Radio Go Go" Gorilla sculpture, which Norfolk artist Mik Richardson took three days to create, to be "taken off the streets".

The sculpture was removed from Millennium Plain, outside The Forum, at 11:00 BST.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-23226366

They smelled a rat.

A Long Island flight attendant was accused of hiding pet rats in her pantyhose and panties in order to sneak them onto planes, according to a lawsuit.

But veteran American Airlines stewardess Louann Giambattista, 55, says allegations made by three colleagues were “absurd” and “patently false” — and they have turned her life upside-down.

The purported “Willard” witnesses included a pilot who helped her out of a van at the airport during a layover on Feb. 26, 2012. The aviator claimed “he saw a bulge in [her] pocket” and saw “what he thought was a live pet,” according to papers filed in Brooklyn federal court.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hed_here_3rhonAeiiZJr7T3s7lb8PK

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. —

A crash involving seven cars shut down Interstate 75 southbound in Clayton County for six hours.

The crash happened on I-75 near CW Grant Parkway around 3 a.m. Friday. Clayton County police said a pedestrian in the road was struck by a car, and there was a domino effect.

Detectives told Channel 2's Tom Jones that six of the seven drivers were driving under the influence. Five were charged with DUI, and the pedestrian was charged with pedestrian in the road way. A sixth driver is expected to be charged after being released from the hospital.

“You’re already under the influence of alcohol. You’re driving. You see something, some type of accident in front you. You’re going to swerve and that would cause other cars to do the same,” a Clayton County police officer told Jones.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/i-75-sb-shut-down-clayton-co-after-6-car-crash/nYdpN/

Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies have once again arrested a man for having sex with a Nadia the horse.

Cirilo Castillo was scheduled to appear before a magistrate Wednesday to face charges of trespassing and cruelty to animals.

Castillo, 43, has repeatedly gone after the same mare, prompting her owner to set up a security camera in the corral where she is kept, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino.

“We have a hell of a surveillance tape,” Trevino said. “It is not going to go to, ‘America’s Funniest Videos,’ that is for sure.”

Trevino described Castillo as a laborer and said he has prior arrests for theft, marijuana possession, and most recently, cruelty to the horse, for which he was released from jail in April.

“The guy is practically harmless, except for the horse,” Trevino said. “I can’t just ignore this and allow it to keep happening.

http://blog.chron.com/narcoconfidential/2013/07/man-charged-again-with-having-sex-with-horse/

The homemade preserve blew up in the fridge, ripping the door off of its hinges and rocking Margaret Goodwin’s flat as she lay asleep at 7am in the morning.

When she went to see what the "bomb" was she found that her family photographs has been smashed by the fridge door as it was flung across the kitchen, knocking a chunk from the wall.

The explosion had also temporarily lifted the ceiling, leaving cracks in the top of the wall, living room and porch, and blew the casing off an extractor fan.

The rhubarb chutney, a gift from a friend, had exploded when gas fermented and built up inside the glass jar.

"If I had been standing in the way, it would probably have killed me" said Mrs Goodwin.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10161647/Exploding-rhubarb-chutney-wrecks-retirement-flat.html

A Willoughby man who believed he could only be charged with burglary if he committed the crime at night has pleaded guilty.

On June 26, James Blankenship, 22, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of breaking and entering into his mother's home against her will.

According to police, Blankenship's mother found her son attempting to break into her home through a first floor window earlier this month.

The young man had not been welcome in his mother's home for approximately three months, nor did he have any possessions on the premise, police said.

Upon being discovered by his mother, the accused fled the scene. A neighbor alerted the police that he had witnessed a man running behind a nearby home. Blankenship was discovered hiding in a crawl space not far from his mother's house, police said.

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2013/07/01/burglar-i-thought-you-could-only-be-arrested-for-burglary-at-night