August 07, 2019
Greetings fellow Bizarros:
A couple weeks ago I told you about the French inventor who invented a jet-powered hoverboard. Well, it looks like he's not going away.
Last Sunday Franky Zapata succeeded in crossing the English Channel on his hoverboard after a previous attempt ended with him falling into the sea.
Standing on a platform powered by five small jet engines and carrying kerosene in a backpack, Zapata took off from Sangatte, just outside Calais in France early Sunday morning, trailed by three helicopters. He reached Britain just over 20 minutes later, waving to onlookers before landing safely on Britain's southern coast.
"For the last five to six kilometres I just really enjoyed it," Zapata told reporters on arrival. "Whether this is a historic event or not, I'm not the one to decide that, time will tell."
"We made a machine three years ago...and now we've crossed the Channel, it's crazy," he said, before breaking into tears.
Zapata's biggest challenge was refuelling with another backpack halfway through the journey across the Strait of Dover, which required landing on a platform mounted on a boat.
The hoverboard is powered by five small jet engines and has a 1500 horsepower. Zapata steers his craft by leaning forward or backward and controls the thrust with a throttle.
The former jet ski champion's first bid to cross the approximately 22 mile stretch of water on a hoverboard was meant to coincide with the 110th anniversary of the first-ever flight across the English Channel in an airplane, achieved by Louis Bleriot.
Bizarrely,
Lewis
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Questions? Comments? Email:
lewis@gophercentral.com
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Lightning Strike Causes Toilet to Explode
A lightning strike on a Florida home's septic tank had an unexpected result -- a toilet exploded inside the home. Marylou Ward, co-owner of the Port Charlotte home, said there was a loud boom when lightning struck the home's septic tank and caused a toilet inside the house to shatter. "We come in here and the toilet was laying on the floor," Ward told local news. "There's all pieces everywhere." She said the strike ruined the home's indoor plumbing and destroyed the septic tank. She said her family was lucky no one was using the toilet at the time of the lightning. Ward said a plumber who examined the damage explained the lightning must have ignited the methane gas inside the septic tank, causing the explosion. "I already sent a picture out to my kids and said don't do it! Here's the proof of why you shouldn't go near the bathrooms in a thunderstorm," Ward said.
Man Recycles $23,000 in Cash
You may not trust banks, but a safe deposit box has got to be better than this. Workers at a California recycling center's sorting line were able to recover nearly $23,000 cash that had been mistakenly thrown out with a shoebox. Officials at Recology in Humboldt County said the Ashland, Ore., man contacted the company to report the shoebox containing his life savings had been tossed out with the recycling and he realized the mistake too late to prevent it from being sent to the sorting center in California. Linda Wise, general manager of Recology's Samoa Resource Recovery Center, said a sharp-eyed worker spotted the box on the sorting line. She said workers were surprised to discover it still contained $22,940 of the man's missing money, with only $320 unrecovered.
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READER COMMENTS
LEWIS; On our final day of USN basic training at Great Lakes IL RTC in 1971 a group of us were told to bring our pocket knives for a work detail. The job was to removed dandelions on the lawn by the roots with our knives so they wouldn't grow back. Realizing that we were leaving the next day and would be long gone before the weeds grew back we just plucked them. Thus the joke was on those lifers who gave us the work detail. R.S.
[That's government work for you.]
Lew...the last issue just proved what I've known all along; women are crazy. If they're in a relationship with a man they're the crazy one. If they're in a relationship with another woman... they're the crazy one. When they're alone - WAY crazy. How often have you heard a news story about a couple of naked gay guys having a knife fight in the street in the middle of the night?
Believe it or not, not everyone is on Facebook. Could you just post your whole column on the website and save time and trouble for your readers? Please and thank you.
[You don't have to be on Facebook at all to read Bizarre News. If you're online (and if you're reading the email, you are) just click the link to go to www.bizarrenews.com. And if you missed an issue just to to the GopherCentral Archive Page to read every issue that has been published in the last five years. Facebook is just another way to connect with the readers.]
END OF READER COMMENTS
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