In a world of advancing technology and declining map-reading skills, some GPS navigator users blindly over-rely on the devices, and News of the Weird has reported enough of their predicaments to mark the category "no longer weird." However, three Japanese students on holiday near Brisbane, Australia, in March created a new standard for ignoring common sense. Bound for North Stradbroke Island (about eight miles offshore), the driver (according to authorities cited by the local Bayside Bulletin) apparently put maps and eyesight aside, in favor of the all-powerful Navigator, which had instructed him to proceed. As news spread on the Internet, photographers rushed to capture the car, half-buried in sand. (In the students' defense, the beach seemed to extend to the horizon at low tide -- although the word "island" might have deserved more respect.) [Bayside Bulletin (Cleveland, Australia), 3-15-2012]

-- The entire village (almost!) of Sodeto, Spain, shared the grand prize in the country's huge Christmas lottery in December, earning each of the 70 households the equivalent of at least $130,000. The joint buy-in of tickets is a town ritual, but one resident missed the canvassing: filmmaker Costis Mitsotakis, who said he was happy that everyone else was happy. (The dark side of winning: Hucksters flooded the town from all over the country.) [New York Times, 1-31-2012]

-- The town of Betws-y-Coed, Wales, holds the distinction of having its name likely butchered by more misspellings on Internet search inquiries than any other. Website managers told BBC News in February that they have compiled a list of 364 different spellings from people ostensibly looking for the town. The most common references were to "Bwtsy Code" and "Betsy Cowed." [BBC News, 2-16-2012]

-- Anthony McDaniel, 47, voluntarily returned to North Carolina from his new home in Texas in February after being charged with embezzlement by his old employer. The owner of Fayetteville's Skibo Skillet (now out of business) accused McDaniel of having pocketed meatballs, corn on the cob and anchovy dip while he worked there. [Greensboro News-Record, 2-23-2012]

-- Make Yourselves at Home: (1) Keith Davis, 46, was caught red-handed in Ashley Murray's house in South Bend, Ind., in February and charged with burglary. Murray, though, said she had mixed feelings because, while there, Davis had folded Murray's clothes and vacuumed the house. (Police said that some drug or other had made Davis believe he was in his own home.) (2) Officials at the county courthouse in Charlotte, N.C., were startled to learn in January that Paul Frizzell, 30, had commandeered a vacant office in the building and for two months had been running his business out of it (with telephone, copy machine and bulletin board, among other trappings). [WNDU-TV (South Bend), 2-10-2012] [Gaston Gazette, 1-12-2012]

-- What Christmas gift would be appropriate for the 7-year-old daughter of Britain's notorious specimen of plastic surgery known as the "Human Barbie"? For little "Poppy" Burge, it was a gift certificate worth the equivalent of about $11,000 for future liposuction (redeemable beginning at age 18). Mom Sarah had already given her a voucher for breast augmentation. (Poppy, developing her early-onset need for attention: "I can't wait to be like Mummy with big boobs. They're pretty.") Mom, who recently turned 51, celebrated with about $80,000 worth of additional plastic surgery to run her lifetime total to the equivalent of (depending on source consulted) $800,000 to $1 million. [Daily Mail (London), 1-4-2012]

-- Sheriff's detectives told the Everett, Wash., Daily Herald in January that they had recently tracked down a 21-year-old man who confessed to stealing checks from the Money Tree store in Lynnwood, Wash., and forging signatures. According to the detectives, the man was clear about his motive: "I don't have an addiction. I don't need to use drugs. I (was) doing this to show my parents that I can make it on my own, without them." [Daily Herald, 1-25-2012]

In October, Robbie Suhr, 48, of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., sought the affections of the young exchange student living with Suhr and his wife and children, but she had so far declined. According to police, a disguised Suhr snatched the woman one night, intending to tie her up, leave, and then return undisguised to "rescue" her. However, she fought back, sending the masked man fleeing. (Suhr got off easier than Jordan Cardella, 20, of Milwaukee did several months earlier. To win back his girlfriend, Cardella convinced a buddy to shoot him, hoping for the girlfriend's sympathy and a change of heart. Although he requested three shots in the back, he wisely settled for one in the arm. Alas, the girlfriend continued to ignore him.) [WTMJ-TV (Milwaukee), 10-30-2011] [Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee), 7-26-2011]

(1) Two ministers in the Indian state of Karnataka were pressured into resigning in February after allegedly being spotted watching pornography on a cellphone in the state legislature. Minister Laxman Savadi said he was actually doing research on the dangers of "rave" parties. (2) A 54-year-old court clerk at Inner London Crown Court was caught by his judge looking at pornography during the victim's testimony at a notorious rape trial. He said he was just "bored" and admitted previously browsing porn in court. [BBC News, 2-8-2012] [Daily Mail, 2-7-2012]

Now in its third season, the TLC cable channel's series "My Strange Addiction" continues to raise the bar for News of the Weird stories. This season's highlights include the man sexually attracted to his car, plus women who surround themselves with mothballs or eat cat food or drink nail polish or dig into their ears or eat adhesive tape. In one episode, "Ayanna," 54, who has not cut her fingernails in three decades, reports that she has recently been cultivating her toenails, which are now 4 inches long and hampering her use of shoes. Another episode this season features Sheyla Hershey, mentioned in News of the Weird four weeks ago after she credited her gigantic breast implants with cushioning her body during a recent car crash. [ABC News, 2-10-2012; Daily Mail (London), 3-6- 2012]

One of the largest methamphetamine busts in U.S. history was made in March by police in Palo Alto, Calif., who used the popular Find-My-iPad app. Apparently, someone at the drug house had stolen the iPad, and police turned on the owner's global-positioning "app," pointing to an apartment complex in Santa Clara County. Almost 800 pounds of meth was confiscated, with a street value of about $35 million. Said the father of the iPad owner, "They have $35 million, and they can't go out and buy an iPad?" [Mercury News (San Jose), 3-3-2012]

News of the Weird reported in 2006 and 2008 on precocious 5-year-old boys who, according to their parents, were certain they wanted to live the rest of their lives as girls (that is, were not just "going through a phase"). In Essex, England, recently, Zach Avery, then 4, made British medical history when the National Health Service diagnosed him with gender identity disorder and endorsed his desire to live as a girl. Zach was so unhappy as a boy that he once tried to dismember himself. [Daily Telegraph (London), 2-20-2012]

Arrested recently and awaiting trial for murder: Justin Wayne Green, 30, Clay County, Texas (March). Kenneth Wayne Thompson, 28, Doniphan, Mo. (March) (arrested in Arizona). Gerald Wayne Little, 60, Princeton, W.Va. (March). Michael Wayne Lindsay, 48, Baileyton, Ala. (March). Keith Wayne Johnson, 19, Buna, Texas (February). Ryan Wayne Koebel, 17, Holts Summit, Mo. (January). Derrick Wayne Hunt Jr., 18, San Antonio (October). Ronald Wayne MacDonald, 50, Reno, Nev. (September) (charged in a 33- year-old cold case). Jeremy Wayne Manieri, 31, Baton Rouge, La. (July) (arrested in Florida). Christopher Wayne Dixon, 25, Sanford, N.C. (August). Indicted for murder: Mark Wayne Thibodeaux, 52, Lake Charles, La. (March). Re-sentenced for murder: Carl Wayne Buntion, Houston (March) (once again sentenced to death). Murder conviction overturned on appeal: Michael Wayne Hash, Richmond, Va. (February). Green: [Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Tex.), 3-20-2012] Thompson: [Associated Press via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3-17-2012] Little: [Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, W.Va.), 3-21-2012] Lindsay: [The Arab Tribune (Arab, Ala.), 3-22-2012] Johnson: [Beaumont Enterprise, 3-20-2012] Koebel: [Associated Press via Columbia Tribune, 1-22-2012] Hunt: [San Antonio Express-News, 10-16-2011] MacDonald: [Sky Valley Chronicle (Monroe, Wash.), 9-24-2011] Manieri: [New York Daily News, 7-13-2011] Dixon: [Fayetteville Observer, 8-7-2011] Thibodeaux: [KPLC-TV (Lake Charles, La.), 3-22-2012] Buntion: [KHOU-TV (Houston), 3-6-2012] Hash: [Associated Press via Washington Post, 2-29-2012]

Thanks This Week to John Connell, Barbara McDonald, Dorothy Rosa Durkee, Steve Ringley, Matt Rushing, Nelson Waller, and Neil Gimon, and to the News of the Weird Senior Advisors (Jenny T. Beatty, Paul Di Filippo, Ginger Katz, Joe Littrell, Matt Mirapaul, Paul Music, Karl Olson, and Jim Sweeney) and Board of Editorial Advisors (Tom Barker, Paul Blumstein, Harry Farkas, Sam Gaines, Herb Jue, Emory Kimbrough, Scott Langill, Steve Miller, Christopher Nalty, Mark Neunder, Bob Pert, Larry Ellis Reed, Rob Snyder, Stephen Taylor, Bruce Townley, and Jerry Whittle).

Back to the Fundamentals: The multicultural Macquarie University, in suburban Sydney, Australia, said its restroom posters, installed last year, have been successful in instilling toilet etiquette. The lined-through figure of a user squatting on top of a toilet seat was especially helpful, apparently. Complaints of unsanitariness were such that some students were timing their classes to use restrooms in a nearby mall instead. (Lest anyone believe the problem is confined to multicultural institutions, a recent memo by the 785-member Lewis Brisbois law firm in San Francisco instructed employees to clean urine from toilet seats, to always take the farthest stalls or urinals available, to mask sounds by toilet-flushing (if desired), and to not make eye contact in the restroom. [Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 1-12-2012] [Above The Law blog, 2-1-2012]

-- Louis Helmburg III filed a lawsuit in Huntington, W.Va., in February against the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and its member Travis Hughes for injuries Helmburg suffered in May 2011 when he fell off a deck at the fraternity house. He had been startled and fallen backward off the rail-less deck after Hughes attempted to fire a bottle rocket "out of his anus" -- and the rocket, instead, exploded in place. (The lawsuit does not refer to Hughes' injuries.) [Courthouse News Service, 2-2-2012]

-- U.S. Immigration agents in a $160,000 Chevy Suburban that had been custom-designed and -armored specifically to protect agents from roadside kidnappings became sitting ducks last year when kidnappers forced the vehicle off the road near San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and got the door open briefly, enabling them to fire 100 rounds and kill one of the two agents inside. According to a February Washington Post report, the Department of Homeland Security had failed to modify the vehicle's factory setting that popped open the door locks automatically whenever the driver shifts into "Park." [Washington Post, 2-13-2012]

-- When Rose Marks and her extended family of Romanian-Gypsy "psychics" were indicted last year for a 20-year-run of duping South Floridians out of as much as $40 million, victims of the clan were elated that justice might be at hand. (A typical scam, according to prosecutors, was to take a client's cash, "to pray over it," promising its return but somehow figuring out how to keep it.) However, in December, the Markses' attorneys reported that "several" of the so-called victims had begun to work with them to help clear the family, including one who reportedly paid Rose over time $150,000. According to the lawyers, these "victims" call the Markses "friends," "life coaches" and "confidants," rather than swindlers. [Miami Herald, 12-26-2011; 2-20-2012]

David Myrland, an anti-government "sovereign" now serving three years in federal prison for threatening the mayor of Kirkland, Wash., filed a federal lawsuit in February accusing various officials of conspiracy -- by the manipulation of bad grammar, i.e., "backwards-correct-syntaxing-modification fraud." Each word of the original complaint, coded by Myrland as to part of speech, "proves" to him that the complaint was "fraudulent" and "handicapping." (Random sentence from Myrland's filing: "For the WORDS OF an ADVERB-SYNTAX-GRAMMAR-MODIFICATIONS ARE with an USE of the SYNTAX-GRAMMAR with the VOID of the POSITIONAL-LODIAL-FACT-PHRASE with the SINGLE-WORD-MODIFIER AS THE: A, AS, AT, AM, BECAUSE (many words omitted) FACT by the VASSALEES.") ("Sovereigns" generally reject the federal government, and Myrland did not explain why he expected a federal judge would have authority to help him.) [Seattle Weekly, 2-14-2012] [Scribd.com, 1-23-2012]

-- Jason Bacon, 41, was arrested in Eureka, Calif., in March after responding to a classified ad for a used motorcycle by offering to trade about $8,000 worth of his home-grown marijuana for it. According to an officer on the scene, Bacon told a deputy, "I know you can't sell it, but I thought it was OK to trade it." [Times-Standard (Eureka), 3-7-2012]

-- Kathleen Mathews was outraged that the local community could turn on her 26-year-old son, Jesse, who had been charged with capital murder for killing a Chattanooga, Tenn., police officer. She told the judge in a letter that Jesse is a "good man," and lamented, "You do one little thing that pisses people off, and they want to hold it against you forever." [Chattanooga Times Free Press, 2-12-2012] 

-- Oklahoma state Sen. Ralph Shortey, a staunch abortion opponent, introduced a bill in January to ban the use of human fetuses in processed food. Although the principal anti-abortion advocacy official in the state said he had never heard of such a practice, Sen. Shortey asserted that it was a problem and that he had been reading up on it on the Internet. [Associated Press via Wichita Eagle, 1-24-2012]

-- Kyle Bower, 19, was elected in November to a seat on the Alburtis (Pa.) Borough Council. Before being sworn in, however, he was sentenced to probation for stalking an ex-girlfriend and tossing a brick through her window. Now that he is seated, he still must answer to 2010 charges in Kutztown, Pa., of resisting arrest for public drunkenness. In both incidents, he also displayed an uncanny ability to slip out of handcuffs and wander away from arresting officers. [Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.), 12-11-2011]

Madeleine Martin, the chief animal protection official for the state government of Hesse, Germany, told a newspaper in Frankfurt in February that among the reasons why the country needed an anti-bestiality law was that she knew of "animal brothels" in Germany (presumably, not animal-animal mating services but human-animal facilities). (Without an anti-bestiality law, authorities usually must prove that the animal has been physically harmed in order to obtain a conviction.) [The Local (Berlin), 2-3-2012]

Law enforcement officers turn to Facebook nowadays to help solve crimes, knowing that some perpetrators cannot resist bragging about or even showing off things they've recently stolen. For example, Steven Mulhall, 21, will be easily prosecuted for stealing the nameplate off the door of Broward County (Fla.) judge Michael Orlando -- since he posted in March a photograph of himself holding it following a courtroom visit. (In other Facebook news, in Tacoma, Wash., in March, corrections officer Alan O'Neill, 41, was charged with bigamy after his long-estranged first wife found out about the second one when Facebook suggested the two be "friends.") [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 3-9-2012] [KOMO News (Seattle), 3-9-2012]

In February, a 41-year-old man in a pond in Gosport, England, apparently suffered an epileptic seizure while feeding swans in water about three feet deep. Firefighters were called, but the first one to arrive remained on shore, explaining that he had been trained only for "ankle deep" water and would have to await a colleague trained in "chest high" water. In July 2011, a man committed suicide in San Francisco Bay by wading into neck-deep water and remaining until he died of hypothermia. Firefighters from the city of Alameda watched from the shore because they lacked water-rescue "training." (In neither situation was it proved that the victim would have survived if rescued sooner.) [Daily Telegraph, 2-22-2012]

Men (almost never a woman) Who Accidentally Shot Themselves Recently: Lee Miars, 30, Myrtle Creek, Ore., while pointing a gun at his head to illustrate a story for friends (January). A 22-year-old Navy SEAL, San Diego, Calif., while pointing a gun at his head to convince friends it was unloaded (January). Riki Ingram, 18, Baker, La., shot his leg while "holstering" his gun to his pocket following a robbery (December). Ethan Bennett, 36, Monroe, Wash., aiming at a squirrel running up his leg, shot his foot (November). Special Deputy Ted Maze, Bedford, Ind., shot his hand while reloading at a training session (June). Kenneth Fortson, 21, Atlanta, was killed in a police chase following a home invasion (by, apparently, holding a gun as his pickup truck hit a tree and jarred his trigger finger) (October). Larry Godwin, 68, Redfield, Iowa, shot himself twice firing at a raccoon in a live trap (February). [Myrtle Creek: KVAL-TV (Eugene, Ore.), 1-24-2012] [San Diego: KNSD-TV (San Diego), 1-5-2012] [Baker: WAFB-TV (Baton Rouge), 12-20-2011] [Monroe, Wash.: KGW-TV (Portland, Ore.), 11-30-2011] [Bedford: Times-Mail (Bedford), 6-16-2011] [Atlanta: Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10-11-2011] [Redfield: WOI-TV (Des Moines), 2-25-2012]

Thanks This Week to Richard Zehr, Chip Sharpe, Kent Heustess, Sandy Pearlman, Perry Levin, Kathryn Wood, Peter Smagorinsky, Sarah Winter, John Smith, Scott Johnston, Karen Bledsoe, and Shawn Tolliver, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

An annual spring fertility festival in Vietnam's Phu Tho province is capped by a symbolic X-rated ceremony rendered G-rated by wooden stand-ins. At midnight on the 12th day of the lunar new year, a man holding a wooden phallus-like object stands in total darkness alongside a woman holding a wooden plank with a hole in it, and the act is attempted. As the tradition goes, if the man is successful at penetration, then there will be good crops. Following the ceremony, villagers are ordered to "go and be free," which, according to a February report by Thanh Nien News Service, means uninhibited friskiness during the lights-out period. [Thanh Nien News (Ho Chi Minh City), 2-9-2012]

-- In the remote state of Meghalaya, India, a matrilineal system endows the women with wealth and property rights and relegates the men to slow-moving campaigns for equality. A men's rights advocate, interviewed by BBC News in January, lamented even the language's favoring of women, noting that "useful" nouns seem all to be female. The system, he said, breeds generations of men "who feel useless," falling into alcoholism and drug abuse. In maternity wards, he said, the sound of cheering greets baby girls, and if it's a boy, the prevailing sentiment is "Whatever God gives us is quite all right." The husband of one woman interviewed said, meekly, that he "likes" the current system -- or at least that's what his wife's translation said he said. [BBC News, 1-19-2012]

-- Each year, the town of Chumbivilcas, Peru, celebrates the new year with what to Americans might seem "Festivus"-inspired (from the Seinfeld TV show), but is actually drawn from Incan tradition. For "Takanakuy," with a background of singing and dancing, all townspeople with grudges from the previous 12 months (men, women, children) settle them with sometimes-bloody fistfights so that they start the new year clean. Said one villager to a Reuters reporter, "Everything is solved here, and after(ward) we are all friends." [Reuters via CBS News, 12-14-2011]

-- In a tradition believed to have originated in the eighth century, the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, marks each Jan. 16 with the festival of Saint Anthony, commenced in style by villagers riding their horses through large fires in the streets ("Las Luminarias"). As horses jump the flames, according to belief, they become purified, demons are destroyed, and fertility and good health result. (Apparently, no horses are harmed, and an on-the-scene priest blesses each for its courage.) [ABC News, 1-17-2012]

-- Prophet Warren Jeffs, of a breakaway Mormon cult, is serving life (plus 20 years) in a Texas prison for raping two underage parishioners, but insists that his power has not been diminished. He was disciplined in December for making a phone call to his congregation announcing several decrees, including barring marriages from taking place until he can return to "seal" them and prohibiting everyone from having sex. (Since Jeffs retains his "messiah" status among many church members, and since life-plus-20 is a long time to wait, and since the cult is reclusive, it is difficult for outsiders to assess the level of sexual frustration in the compound.) [Daily Mail (London), 12-31-2011; Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 12-30-2011]

-- Recovering alcoholic Ryan Brown recently moved his licensed tattoo parlor into The Bridge church in Flint Township, Mich., which is one more indicator of Rev. Steve Bentley's nontraditional belief that mainstream religion had become irrelevant to most people. Tattooing is a "morally neutral" practice, Bentley said, although Brown, of course, does not ink tattoos lauding drugs, gangs or the devil. (The Bridge has also loaned out its plentiful floor space in a shopping mall to wrestling, cage fighting and auto repair facilities.) [Flint Journal, 1-5-2012]

-- In December, Pennsylvania judge Mark Martin dismissed harassment charges against Muslim Talaag Elbayomy, who had snatched a "Zombie Mohammad" sign from the neck of atheist Ernie Perce at last year's Halloween parade in Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Perce was mockingly dressed as an undead person, in robes and beard.) In tossing out the charge (even though Elbayomy seemed to admit to an assault and battery), Martin ruled that Sharia law actually required Elbayomy to take the sign away from Perce. Judge Martin later explained that the technical basis for the ruling was (he-said/he-said) lack of evidence. (The December ruling did not attract press attention until February.) [WHTM-TV (Harrisburg, Pa.), 2-21-2012; Carlisle (Pa.) Sentinel, 3-3-2012]

-- According to a municipal street sign in front of Lakewood Elementary School in White Lake, Mich. (filmed in February by Detroit's WJBK-TV), the speed limit drops to 25 mph on "school days only," but just from "6:49-7:15 a.m., 7:52-8:22 a.m., 8:37-9:07 a.m., 2:03-2:33 p.m., 3:04-3:34 p.m. (and) 3:59-4:29 p.m." [WJBK-TV, 2-15-2012]

-- Jack Taylor, 18, of Worcester, England, was given a lenient sentence in January for an August burglary he admitted. He and another youth had tried to steal a resident's motorcycle but damaged it in the process. Since he was remorseful, made restitution, observed a curfew and did community service, he was released by the judge when he secured full-time employment. (However, the employment, the court later learned, was as a slaughterman in Norway, where he was to take part in the culling of Alaskan baby seals.) [Worcester News, 1-17-2012]

(1) John Morgan, 34, was charged in February in Port St. Lucie, Fla., with embezzling over $40,000 from a trust fund that had been established for his daughter, who has special needs because of cerebral palsy. Because of the theft, she is unable to have dental work necessitated because a care provider failed to lock her wheelchair, sending her sprawling face-first. (2) Police officer Skeeter Manos, 34, was charged in February in Seattle with embezzling over $120,000 from a fund for the families of four colleagues who had been shot to death in the line of duty. Manos' alleged expenditures included several trips to Las Vegas. [WPTV (West Palm Beach, Fla.), 2-6-2012] [Associated Press via WHBF-TV (Rock Island, Ill.), 2-8-2012]

What Do You Mean, I'm Not Mentally Stable: Ms. Fausat Ogunbayo, 46, filed a federal lawsuit against New York City's Administration for Children's Services because it had taken away her kids (aged 13 and 10 at the time) in 2008 for questions about Ogunbayo's mental stability. The lawsuit, for "recklessly disregard(ing)" her "right to family integrity," asks the city to pay her $900,000,000,000,000 (trillion). [Staten Island Advance, 2-7-2012]

LaDondrell Montgomery, 36, had been sentenced in November in Houston to life in prison for armed robbery despite his vigorous protestations of innocence, and about a week later, in December, he was exonerated in fact. Although he had testified at his trial, he had not mentioned that he had an ironclad alibi -- that he had been in jail during the time the robbery was committed. Once jail records were reviewed, Montgomery was freed. The prosecutor hadn't checked the records before trial, and neither had Montgomery's attorney, but then neither had Montgomery ever mentioned it (because, he had told his lawyers, he had been in and out of jail so many times in his life that he just could not remember if he had been locked up at the time of the armed robbery). [Houston Chronicle, 12-9-2011]

Sherwin Shayegan of Bothell, Wash., has apparently been acting out again. News of the Weird first mentioned, in 2007, an adult "troll" who hung out at high schools and befriended male students, especially athletes, ultimately beseeching them for piggyback rides. In some cases, he jumped on without permission and was arrested and ordered to get treatment and to stay away from schools. He reportedly began his piggyback "career" in 2004 with incidents in Washington and Oregon, and though there were periods of dormancy, it flared up again recently as he traveled to Montana, Bismarck, N.D., and Minneapolis (perhaps to outrun restraining orders). (Fondness for piggyback rides is not a widely practiced obsession, though the legendary illustrator R. Crumb liked to receive them in lieu of sex, according to an ex-girlfriend in the 1994 movie "Crumb.") [Associated Press via KOMO-TV (Seattle), 2-16-2012]