News of the Weird, Vol. 5

New Mice No Longer Afraid of Cats
Scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed mice that aren’t afraid of cats. Really.

These new genetically engineered mice may also help scientists to understand the behaviors of other mammals.

In developing the new mice, the scientists were able to successfully switch off the mice’s instinct to run at the smell of cats. They now think that fear may be genetically hardwired, instead of learned through experience.

The scientists achieved these results by removing certain nasal cells in the mice, so that the smell of a cat doesn’t produce fear. The new mice actually approached a cat, played with it, and even snuggled up to it.

This discovery that fear is a genetic factor, and not a learned response, is a breakthrough in scientific circles.

The findings also suggest that humans’ aversions to certain smells, like that of rotten food, could also be genetically predetermined.

Montgomery Couple Makes Burglar Clean Their House
A couple in Montgomery, Alabama returned home from a week’s vacation to find that their house had been ransacked. Piles of trash littered the floors, cabinets and drawers had been emptied, and the homeowners were devastated.

When the husband went into another room to assess the damage there, he came face to face with the burglar – who was wearing one of his hats.

The husband pulled his own gun on the suspect, Tajuan Bullock, and made him sit down while the couple decided what to do.

Their decision? To make Bullock clean up the mess he had made.

They stood over him while he picked up the piles of discarded items that he had strewn around the house and all over the floors.

When police arrived, Bullock had the nerve to complain to them about having to clean up the mess.

The police officer laughed, and told him that anyone else would have shot him dead.

Parrot’s Loose Lips Solve a Mystery
Englishman Chris Taylor couldn’t understand why every time his girlfriend, Suzy’s, cell phone rang, his parrot would chirp out, “Hiya, Gary!”

And every time the African Grey heard the name “Gary” on the TV or radio, he would make kissing noises.

Taylor, a computer programmer, was amused at first, assuming that the bird, Ziggy, had picked up the habit by listening to TV shows.

But when he sat down beside Suzy on the sofa and heard Ziggy call out in Suzy’s voice, “I love you, Gary,” it wasn’t funny anymore.

Suzy broke down and confessed to having an affair with a former colleague, who would meet her at the house while Taylor was away, but Ziggy looked on.

The confession ended their relationship, but Taylor also parted company with Ziggy, because he kept screeching out Gary’s name.

Taylor says that he wasn’t sorry to end the relationship with Suzy, but that it nearly broke his heart to give up eight-year-old Ziggy, whom he’d bought as a chick.

With the help of a local parrot dealer, Ziggy has now found a new home.

”Merry Christmas” Making a Comeback
The phrase “Merry Christmas” is important to Virginian Ashley Tarter, and she’s making it known that she’s in favor of it. She’s fighting back against the generic “Happy Holidays” greeting by wearing a button that proclaims, “It’s OK to wish me a Merry Christmas”.

Tarter and her friends have started a “Wish Me a Merry Christmas” campaign by selling the buttons, and hope to sell at least one million of them so that they can ask the top 30 retailers in the country, such as Best Buy and the Gap, who have directed their staffs to say "Happy Holidays" to customers instead of "Merry Christmas", to switch back to “Merry Christmas” as the standard greeting.

They say atheists, secularists and politically correct advocates have pushed retailers into the "Happy Holidays" greeting, despite the fact that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, according to a Gallup poll. And they're not happy about corporate America, atheists or purveyors of political correctness killing the grand old “Merry Christmas” greeting.

Their Merry Christmas buttons cost $1.50 each and they are encouraging churches to sell them for $5 as a fundraiser.

Sales are going well. St. Andrew the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in England has purchased 200 of them and hope to use the proceeds of their sales to repair the church’s roof.

Parish priest Rev. Dominic Borg says that the buttons are a friendly antidote to the "Happy Holidays" phrase that has been creeping in as a replacement for the traditional greeting, and that well-meaning people motivated by political correctness have tried to take the religious meaning out of Christmas in the mistaken belief they are being fair to everyone.

"We get so lost in political correctness sometimes that we're afraid to be who we are and say who we are," Borg said. "It's not a matter of imposing our beliefs on others. It's about respecting our beliefs and traditions as well as the beliefs and traditions of others."

He also said that Christians should be comfortable about celebrating their holy days. "I don't think people of other faiths take offense because we celebrate Christmas."

Besides, he said, the message of Christmas is peace and joy to the world. It's about thinking about others, helping those in need and working for peace.

“What's wrong with that?" he asks.

Man Eats Underwear to Try to Beat Breathalyzer
An 18-year-old Canadian man tried to eat his underwear before taking a breathalyzer test, in hopes that the fabric would dilute the amount of alcohol in his breath.

It must have worked, because he blew exactly .08 on the test, the legal limit, and was later acquitted of all charges.

David Zurfluh was stopped by Royal Canadian Mounted Police after weaving down a highway, and then fled his car on foot. After being apprehended and placed in the rear of the police car, he tried to eat his shorts.

Zurfluh admitted in court to ripping the crotch out of his underwear and stuffing it into his mouth.

In discussing the case later, police said that people left the courtroom with tears in their eyes, trying not to laugh.