What? (Weird News Tuesday)

Welcome back to yet another Weird News Tuesday! For those of you who do not know, Weird News Tuesday is a weekly segment where I go through a news site and find some of the weird things that have been making news. Sometimes it is the stories that are weird and other times the weird part is how the story became news-worthy. Each week I use a different news site and this week I am using yet another British news site (what is up with all this weird British news?); Metro. We begin with one very bad attempt at subtlety in a photo bomb. The only difference from most other photo-bombs is that the photo-bomber was not actually human. This elephant (see picture below) is not the first popular animal photo-bomber and he definitely will not be the last. You can click here to see more photos of hilarious animal photo-bombers.

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/27/say-cheese-elephant-stakes-a-claim-for-least-subtle-photobomb-ever-4279695/

Next we have a news reporter making a live broadcast from a zoo when a lion sneaks up on her and jumps on the gate. Needless to say, the reporter was scared but the funnier part was seeing the lion clearly walk towards the gate knowing what it was going to do. That was one smart (and comedic) lion which would have provided for quite some entertainment on that channel. We all know how protective some people are over their money and how money can make some people really stupid. One lady from Germany made that mistake after flushing 330,000 pounds (over AU$569,000) down the toilet in a drunken rage. The lady was 63 and her husband had passed away in a care home. When the care home found out that she had come into money they sent the old lady the bill for her husband's medical care. The lady opened the letter after a few glasses of champagne and then tore up the money and flushed it down the toilet. After a court case into the incident, the lady was charged 3,300 pounds (over AU$6260) over the incident as the court heard that the lady may have made up the story to avoid paying the bills but it would be "hard to prove". An idiot of a man in Kansas (United States) ran back into his burning home to save his Xbox console. Fire officials say that the man was lucky to have only suffered from smoke inhalation with over AU$91000 damage caused by the fire. I think it is worrying that of all the things he could have saved (photos, memorabilia) he chose an item that could easily be replaced (though without the memory stored on that hard-drive). Over the years, people have proposed to each other in a variety of ways. However, one man used a fake arrest in his proposal. Funny, last week there was a story about a proposal as well except that one was between actors in a live performance of Peter Pan. You can view this proposal by clicking here. A nursing home has become very creative when making a calendar. Residents recreated some iconic movie scenes including the scene from Titanic where Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet are leaning over the end of the Titanic. It is all very creative and you can view all the photos here. A 14 year old girl got a surprise when she was about to bite into her blueberry muffin and realised that it was the spitting image of her dog. Obviously I am talking about the top of the muffin otherwise that is one seriously deformed dog. There is a picture of it which you can view below and it actually does look like her dog. The girl lost her appetite and her family froze the muffin and are looking for potential buyers. So far they have had no interest in it but knowing what some people are into, there is bound to be someone out there who wants it.

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/24/teen-discovers-blueberry-muffin-that-looks-just-like-her-pet-chihuahua-and-tries-to-sell-it-4275745/

There definitely were some weird stories today, I will try and find a non-British site with a weird news section next week. See you tomorrow!

So many Parties

Yeah, before I go on I just have to say something. I am talking about politics in this post so when I say party I do not mean dance parties or birthday parties. No, I mean political parties. Did you know that Australia has fifty-four political parties? I mean, come on there are just so much yet still no clear options to vote for. I am just so grateful that I am only registered to vote and not yet old enough to actually vote. It really is a blessing. The following is a list of the fifty-four parties so yeah, let's have a look at what some people have come up with. This is only part one of a new series coming out every second day. This post will contain twelve parties so there will be more in two days.

Source: http://auspolitics.tumblr.com/

The following list is from the Australian Electoral Commission Website which has the complete list accurate as of the 9th of August 2013 when it was last updated. Here is the link: http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/party_registration/Registered_parties/

The Animal Justice Party stands for Animal rights and the banning of live exports.

The Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated is not a very interesting one with a horrible website. All I managed to glean from this site was their core values of Identity, Independence and Freedom.

The Australian Christians is a self-explanatory one that believes in joining the politics with religion and one without the other is not desirable. (Again, I am no expert so check Xavier's awesome current affairs blog for better and more reliable information).

The Australian Democrats is a very interesting party in terms of their website which is full of colloquialism and the first thing you see as soon as you open the site is a quote from the party founder which reads "Keep the bastards honest". Need I say more?

Australian First Nations Political Party does not actually have a website but rather a Facebook Page which I am not going to search through so instead I turn to Wikipedia. They focus on indigenous Australian sovereignty and Northern Territory statehood. Refer to Xavier's blog for better information.

Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party are pretty laid back and has a site with parts left unfilled and can be seen as using a theme as there are parts that tell them what to write there but there is no writing. Editing is vital. I am not too sure what they really stand for though there are a lot of references to fishing so probably more focused on the related legislation.

The Australian Greens is the party that is more well-known and is pretty much an environmentalist party with a few other policies on the side.

Australian Independents believe in a better democracy where anyone who wants to run for parliament can easily do so to get their voice heard. They are very critical of the current democracy in place.

The Australian Labor Party is the current party in power and, along with the liberal party (see below), are the main two contenders for Parliament although neither is a very good option at the moment.

Source: http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/ha/polley/polley.htm

The Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party is pretty self-explanatory party set up in response to legislation "inflicting on their lifestyle".

The Australian Protectionist Party with protectionist and nationalist parties. They aim to "protect, preserve and defend our identity, heritage and freedoms".

Australian Sex Party is one that is turning a few heads and is actually pretty interesting. Their policies include (but are not limited to) the legalisation (and heavy taxation) of marijuana, same-sex marriage, the legalisation of euthanasia and the abolishment of tax exemptions for religious groups.

So as you can see there is a lot of political parties and in two days come back for some more, see you tomorrow!

New Zealand Legalises Gay Marriage

New Zealand has became the 13th Country in the world, and the first country in the Asia-Pacific, to legalise same-sex marriage. The parliament voted 77 to 44 in favour of the Gay-Marriage bill and now same-sex couples can legally be married in New Zealand. This bill will also allow a same-sex couple to adopt and the couple will have their marriage recognised in other countries.

This is expected to put pressure on surrounding countries to follow in New Zealand's footsteps but Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia, has expressed her opposition to Marriage Equality and there is little federal movement in this area. So it looks like same-sex couples will be taking more trips to New Zealand to get married which will surely benefit their economy and tourism industry.

It is expected that this change will boost Tourism in New Zealand as well as the economy due to the new market opened up to spend money on Weddings. It was estimated that an extra $700 million dollars will be spent by same-sex couples on their weddings (in total, not individually) which will truly kick-start the New Zealand Economy. Many Australian Same-Sex Couples have also said that they would go on a trip to New Zealand to get married instead of waiting for a similar bill in Australia, which at the current rate could be a long way away. However, same-sex couples will have to wait around 4 months so that The Department of Internal Affairs (handling births, deaths and marriages) can be prepared for the surge of new paperwork.

I support Marriage Equality as I believe that Love is Love no matter who it is between and I believe some Same-Sex couples love each other more than some heterosexual couples and therefore deserve the right to marry who they want, where they want. So I think Australia should follow in New Zealand's footsteps and legalise Same-Sex Marriages.