Weird Wired World

There are some seriously weird stories out there, some of them masquerading as news.

From Australia come this - high quality paper is being made from kangaroo manure. Of course there's the perennial problem of supply chains: "We are hoping the community will help by collecting poo for us and dropping it off in plastic bags. New or old, we'll take it all", said the manager of Creative Paper Tasmania (sic). The inspiration? Paper made from elephant dunk and elk poo ... of course.

Also from the BBC (good to see the license fee being put to good use) under this immortal link: "Nigerian is fined for dressing as a woman to sell love potion". Abubakar Hamza, aka Fatima Kawaji, used his female identity to sell herbal aphrodisiacs to women in the conservative Islamic city of Kano. He "appeared in court dressed in a pink kaftan and matching cap, said he was now 'a reformed man'". So what on earth did his pre-reformation get-up look like?

Finally, this one tickled me because my new MA programme (ASEAN Studies since you ask) is coming up for consideration by Senate next week. You can boldly go where no other philosophy student has gone before in Georgetown University's "Philosophy and Star Trek" course, where students discuss the nature of time travel, the ability of computers to think and feel, and other philosophical dilemmas facing the crew of the Starship Enterprise. I love this earnest defence of the course in The Georgetown Independent:

Philosophy and Star Trek is a very misunderstood course. There is no better way to convey this than to describe the predictable, ignorant, annoying, and inevitably lame responses I get from some of my fellow students when I tell them I am enrolled in it. After they finish laughing in my face and sharing their horribly unoriginal Star Trek pun with me, I have to explain to them that the course is NOT the same as a Star Trek convention.

(Hat tip: Belyn)