Move over Basil Fawlty… a Florida man shoots his own car in frustration at its unreliability.

Police handcuff a five-year-old girl, in front of a running video camera, no less. I bet Supernanny wouldn’t do that.

A NSW central coast family refuses to take down a Nazi flag flying in their backyard, apparently not because they’re Nazis, but because their 4 year month old daughter enjoys watching it blow around in the breeze, and the mother didn’t know what it was when she bought it. Jeez. How clueless can you get. GET YOUR DAUGHTER ANOTHER SMEGGING FLAG, you stupid woman. 2:30pm update: it’s been taken down.

The owner of BenedictXVI.com promises no porn on the site. Though it beats me why any web-surfing Catholics would pick that address to go to anyway. Wouldn’t they just stick to vatican.va?

Darwin Award attempt: a kid who has just got his drivers licence goes out with a mate. Said mate hangs out the window to throw fruit at road signs. Said mate hits side of a bus shelter. Oops.

Computer-generated gibberish as a paper entitled “Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy” submitted to the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics is accepted. (Thanks Lauren)

Channel 7 suffers a fifteen minute power failure, which according to ratings figures is watched avidly by more than 638,000 people, out-rating ABC and SBS. (Thanks David and Tony)

US Secret Service now guarding a pregnant duck. (Thanks Manuel)

This isn’t news, but a media-watch type of thing: documenting the BBC News web site’s wacky use of stock photography. (Found it via the Beeb themselves, in a column that talks about how they put the site together).

A 15 year old boy gets hold of a tram key, and steals two trams, one last Friday night, and a second one on Sunday night, driving it for up to 30km while picking up and dropping off passengers, before being caught by police.

Beautiful people earn more money, says a study. (Thanks Manuel)

Robot jockies are being tried in the United Arab Emirates for camel races, but meanwhile the Japanese have put a robot in charge of a police station for a day. Apparently it’s armed with coloured balls. Hmmm. (Thanks Andrew)

Florida, ever ready to cut down on crime, is poised to make lawful opening fire on anyone perceived to be a threat. They’re already allowed to do so in private, apparently. (Thanks Brian)

The Washington Post ponders (apparently seriously) if “Father Dougal Macguire of Craggy Island” (from TV’s Father Ted) should be the next pope. Apparently he’s a long shot at 1000 to 1. (Thanks Jessica)

Hoax or real? Some person is demanding US$50,000 in donations or they’ll eat Toby the rabbit. Almost unbelievably, $20,000 in donations has already been received. Shame that money didn’t go somewhere deserving.

An Australian lazily surfing the web rings British police after he sees what appears to be a crime on a British webcam.

Tokyo’s Saikyo subway line begins operation of a women-only carriage, to prevent groping.

Looks like Charles and Camilla’s wedding will clash with the Pope’s funeral, putting the Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Canterbury in an awkward position. I think I’d rather farewell the Pope, myself.