In the “quit while you’re ahead” department…

“World’s first human head transplant a success, professor says”
By Yaron Steinbuch
New York Post
November 17, 2017

The world's first human head transplant has been carried out on a corpse in China, according to a controversial Italian doctor who said Friday that scientists are now ready to perform the surgery on a living person.

Professor Sergio Canavero, chief of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, said the operation was carried out by a team led by Dr. Xiaoping Ren, who last year successfully grafted a head onto a monkey's body.

"The first human transplant on human cadavers has been done. A full head swap between brain-dead organ donors is the next stage," Canavero said at a press conference in Vienna, the Telegraph reported.

"And that is the final step for the formal head transplant for a medical condition which is imminent," said Canavero, who has gained a mix of fame and notoriety for his Frankenstein-like pursuits. Read more.

For Wendy:

Northampton Clown Terrorizes English Town Just By Standing Around
by Sebastian Murdock
The Huffington Post
September 16, 2013

It doesn’t speak. It doesn’t juggle. It has balloons but doesn’t hand them out. It probably doesn’t even sleep. It just stands there, haunting our dreams with that sinister smile.

An anonymous man has been striking fear into the hearts of the Northampton, U.K., community by ominously standing around in creepy clown apparel.

The Northampton Herald & Post first reported the sightings earlier this month. The clown has allegedly been spotted all over town, and sometimes is seen carrying a clown teddy.

Efforts made to discover the identity of the jester have yielded few results. A recent YouTube video showing a man being interviewed in clown garb made waves, but the clown denied that it was him on his Facebook page. (more…)

April Fools’ Day Prank Products: From Self-inflating Whoopie Cushions To ‘I’m A Douche’ Coffee Mugs
by David Moye
The Huffington Post
March 31, 2013

For some people, April Fools’ Day is a day to say, “whoopie” — as in cushion.

Celebrated since medieval times, the humorous holiday is perfect for those people who want to get a rise out of friends, family — or even authoritarian figures who have tortured them the other 364 days of the year.

“It’s an excuse to vent frustrations, and be playful and harmless,” according to prank artist Joey Skaggs, whose specializes in fooling the media into printing outrageous stories.

One year, Skaggs convinced major New York newspapers that he’d created a “cathouse for dogs,” where pooches could get sexually gratified by a “savory” assortment of “hot bitches”; another time, he was a guest on Good Morning America, where he posed as the leader of a group of ex military commandos who were now helping dieters as the “Fat Squad,” a team that would physically restrain fat people, to keep them from breaking their diets. (more…)

Update: Checkout Joey Skaggs’ Facebook Page to see the event invitation and photos.

‘Santa Claus’ At United Nations: Prankster Joey Skaggs Demands Nuclear Disarmament
by Michael McLaughlin
The Huffington Post
November 14, 2012

Joey Skaggs, dressed as Santa Claus, worries that a nuclear apocalypse is a serious threat overlooked by the mainstream media.

NEW YORK — Doesn’t it seem like the holiday protest season starts earlier and earlier every year?

A protesting Santa on an adult-sized tricycle pedaled up First Avenue Tuesday, dragging an 8-foot missile to the United Nations. His message to world leaders: “Peace on Earth — Or Else.”

Nobody ran for cover. The comically fake bomb was a dud. And this St. Nick was the legendary media prankster Joey Skaggs, accompanied by six performance artists serving as elves.

Given that New York suffered the worst hurricane in its history just two weeks ago, perhaps it’s little surprise that this Santa and his giant toy explosive were overlooked.

Skaggs didn’t care. He just wanted to kick off the holiday season with a not-so-gentile reminder about “the absurdity of nuclear Holocaust and the direction we’re going with North Korea, Iran and Israel.

“Everyone wants a missile,” Skaggs told The Huffington Post.

“If you don’t do it now, when do you do it?,” he said, “after the Holocaust?”

(more…)

Woolly Mammoth Video From Siberia Faces Credibility Issues
Huffington Post
February 9, 2012

A woolly mammoth has reportedly been seen and videotaped in Siberia, offering irrefutable proof that the giant hairy prehistoric elephants — believed to have gone extinct thousands of years ago — still exist.

That is, of course, if this new video shows an actual mammoth crossing a Siberian river. According to The Sun, a government engineer, conducting a survey for a potential new road last summer, saw the beast in question in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Siberia.

He supposedly filmed the creature. And here is where so many questions come to mind: (more…)

Paranormal Phone Apps Like Ghost Radar Help Smartphone Users Seek Spirits
Huffington Post
August 13, 2011

Three “mists” appear at a reportedly haunted Revolutionary War fort in Stamford, CT. Eyewitnesses have often reported ghostly phenomena here. Also, Kodak Labs said the photo was not the result of bad exposure, film or camera problems.

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, if there’s something weird and it don’t look good, who ya gonna call — on your smartphone?

When modern technology combines with good old-fashioned ghostbusting, the result is a series of paranormal phone apps that might help tech-savvy ghost hunters detect other-worldly presences without the need for costly equipment. (more…)

Cardiff-by-the-Sea: Cardiff Kook caught in “pterodactyl snack attack”
by Morgan Cook and Bill Wechter
North County Times
August 13, 2011

The Encinitas surfer statue, titled “The Magic Carpet Ride,” also known as the “Cardiff Kook,” was dressed Saturday as a cave man being grabbed by a huge pterodactyl in the latest artful prank placed on the statue in Cardiff-by-the-Sea on Saturday.

A little more than a year after a papier-mache shark caught the Cardiff Kook in its jaws, a pterodactyl swooped onto the hapless statue Saturday, catching the inexperienced surfer up in its talons.

Hundreds of people stopped to stare at the giant prehistoric creature atop “The Magic Carpet Ride” sculpture on Highway 101.

“It’s the best Cardiff Kook since I’ve been alive,” 6-year-old Del Mar resident Lucy Holliday told her grandmother. (more…)

The Return of the Montauk Monster?
AOL News
May 14, 2009

Will the Montauk Monster mystery finally be solved?

The remains of a mysterious creature, said to have been photographed on New York’s Long Island last weekend, have renewed speculation about monstrous creatures — or monstrous tricksters — lurking near Montauk.

Photos of a similar carcass allegedly found in the area became a global Internet sensation last year. Those remains were said to have disintegrated before they could be examined, according to Montauk-Monster.com, which has documented the finds in detail. But the site says the newly found monster is on ice.

“The beast smelled like a mix of low-tide and rotten garbage,” blog author Nicky Papers wrote on the site. “It really smelled horrific. I couldn”™t help but take numerous pictures of it and video clips.” Papers said that it doesn’t matter if the new beastie turns out to come from mundane origins, as long as this time, the world learns what it really is.

thanks Linda