Public Urination Permitted
Status: Prank

Pranksters have placed signs in various places around Nottingham stating: "Public Urination Permitted After 7.30pm".
The Nottingham City Council wants everyone to know that
the signs are not telling the truth: "It is an offence to urinate in public and these signs have been put up illegally, for whatever reason."
This prank is basically the opposite of
one I reported on over a year ago in which pranksters placed signs in public lavatories that read: "Think Green. Think Safe. Do you really need to go?"
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Wed Dec 24, 2008 |
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Comments (3)
Category:
Gross,
Pranks
False Feces Demonstration
Status: Street theater

November 19 was World Toilet Day. In honor of the occasion, activists in Switzerland held a "false-feces demonstration" outside the Bern train station. This involved placing hundreds of fake rubber droppings on the pavement. The point of this fecal fakery was to raise awareness about sanitation problems around the world.
The Sun has pictures of the plastic poo.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Fri Nov 21, 2008 |
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Comments (5)
Category:
Gross,
Pranks
The Pooping Intern
Status: Undetermined
Gawker has reported a rumor --
the tale of the pooping intern -- that has all the earmarks of an urban legend. The rumor, about an unnamed person, comes from an unnamed source, and it details the kind of too-awful-to-be-true scenario that's the stock-in-trade of urban legends. Which isn't to say that the story isn't true. I have no idea. I'm just saying it
sounds like an urban legend.
The story, to summarize: A young woman had recently taken a trip to Israel where she caught a stomach bug. After the vacation she shows up at NBC for the first day of her summer internship. But disaster strikes when she's overcome by sudden-onset diarrhea. She rushes to the bathroom... only to discover that NBC locks its bathrooms, and she doesn't have the key. Therefore, the contents of her intestines end up all over the hallways of NBC.
Most people might decide to not show up for work again, after that. But she shows up the next day... and no one ever says anything about it because they're all too embarrassed. But the rumor about it ends up all over the internet.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Thu Aug 21, 2008 |
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Comments (12)
Category:
Gross
Farting iPhones
Status: Prank
You've just shelled out a couple hundred bucks for a new iPhone, and now you're paying outrageous monthly service charges in addition to that. So what can you do to show off your new status symbol? How about make it fart?
DoApp has introduced a
whoopie cushion app for the iPhone:
This app includes 10 varieties of gas sounds. The user will be able to choose the right length and power to make the proper sound effect for the moment. In order to use this application, a user has to touch the iPhone once or swipe his finger across the screen.
But isn't the point of the prank to make it sound like
someone else just farted? If you install this on your iPhone and play it during a meeting, everyone's going to be looking at you.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Thu Jul 17, 2008 |
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Comments (4)
Category:
Gross,
Pranks,
Technology
A Rat’s Ass
Status: Gag gift

Found on eBay. Finally, you can give
a rat's ass. For only $10.25!
I seriously wonder about the psychology of the person who makes these -- carefully removing the posterior portion of a rat's anatomy and mounting it on a piece of wood.
I wonder even more about the person who buys it. (I thought about it for a second, but then concluded that, no, the wife would kill me if I unveiled this.)
It fits into the genre of gag gifts that take popular expressions literally. The only similar item I can think of are
"round tuits," but I know there are others.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Sun Jul 13, 2008 |
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Comments (8)
Category:
Gross
An Unfortunate Accident
Status: Undetermined
This news clipping has been doing the rounds:
Is it true? It does have urban-legend qualities to it, but a search of LexisNexis reveals that it was widely reported in April 2002. English-language papers credited the story to the Danish newspaper BT. The surgeon was identified as Jorn Kristensen. The Sun had this line:
Surgeon Jorn Kristensen said of the chain reaction: "No-one considered the possibility."
So, given the specific details, I'm going to say that
it appears to be true my hunch is that it's true, but I'll list it as undetermined.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Sun Jul 13, 2008 |
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Comments (18)
Category:
Gross,
Health/Medicine
A Degloving Injury
Status: Bizarre but real
Warning: Don't look at these pictures if you're squeamish.
Picture 1,
Picture 2. They're the latest stomach-turners circulating around the internet. You've been warned! But if you think you can handle it, the pictures are interesting from an anatomical perspective.
They show a "degloved" finger. A woman, while drunk, snagged her ring on a spiked fence, thereby peeling the skin off her finger. Her friends had the presence of mind to put the 'finger glove' in a glass of water and take her to a hospital.
The images are strange, but real. They come from a recent article in
The Internet Journal of Orthopedic Surgery. I'm sure the images wouldn't seem strange to someone who's used to seeing this kind of stuff. But I'm not, and they look very strange to me.
The good news is that, should your finger ever be degloved, the skin can be reattached. But after seeing these pictures, I'm thinking maybe it would be safer not to wear my ring anymore. (via
Marianas Eye)
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Thu Jun 19, 2008 |
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Comments (7)
Category:
Gross,
Health/Medicine
The Puppy Over the Cliff Video
Status: Real
Many of you have probably already seen the "puppy being thrown over a cliff" video that's been all over the internet in the past week. If you haven't,
here it is, but be warned. It's disturbing. The
Honolulu Advertiser offers this description of it:
Two Marines are seen in combat gear smiling as one holds a white-and-black puppy by the scruff of its neck. The dog seems to be about 8 weeks old and is motionless as it is held.
"Cute little puppy, huh?" says one Marine as he smiles broadly.
"Oh so cute, so cute, little puppy," says another in a child-like voice.
The Marine holding the puppy is then seen throwing the animal overhand into a desert-like gully below. The animal yelps until it thuds to the ground at the bottom of the gully.
"That's mean," one Marine says afterward.
When I first saw the video I felt it confirmed that there are some pretty sick people out there. But I didn't see anything that would make me suspect the video was fake. Nevertheless, a lot of people have been arguing that it's not real. For instance,
see this youtube video. And
more here.
The skeptics are suggesting that the puppy was already dead, and that the sounds of it yelping were dubbed in. But I think this is a case of being overly skeptical. That puppy looks alive to me. It's not making any noise initially because it's being held by the scruff of its neck. If you scruff a cat or dog it's going to become very quiet and submissive. It's an instinctive behavior.
The Honolulu Advertiser reports that the Marine Corps is investigating the video. The Marines have released a statement: "The video is shocking and deplorable and is contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine... We do not tolerate this type of behavior and will take appropriate action." (Thanks, Nettie)
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Tue Mar 04, 2008 |
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Comments (39)
Category:
Animals,
Gross,
Military,
Photos/Videos