MOSCOW, May 27 (Reuters) - Russian police have taken into care a 5-year-old girl who has been shut up in a flat in the company of cats and dogs for her entire life, police said on Wednesday.

The girl, who lived in the Eastern Siberian city of Chita, could not speak Russian and acted like an dog when police took her into care.

"For five years, the girl was 'brought up' by several dogs and cats and had never been outside," a police statement said.

"The unwashed girl was dressed in filthy clothes, had the clear attributes of an animal and jumped at people," it said.

The flat had no heat, water or sewage system.

A police spokeswoman said the girl, known as Natasha, is being monitored by psychologists in an orphanage. Her mother was being questioned but her father has not been found yet.

She appears to be about 2-years-old, though her real age is five, refuses to eat with a spoon and has taken on many of the gestures of the animals with which she lived, police said.

"When carers leave the room, the girl jumps at the door and barks," the police said.

Feral children, the stuff of folklore all over the world, usually exhibit the behaviour of the animals with whom they have had closest contact, a condition known as the Mowgli Syndrome after the fictional child from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" who was raised by wolves in the jungle.

Such children have usually built strong ties with the animals with whom they lived and find the transition to normal human contact extremely traumatic. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Farah Master)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

May 14, 2009--In South America female phorid flies have developed a bizarre reproductive strategy: They hover over fire ants (pictured in a file photo), then inject their eggs into the ants with a needle-like appendage. The egg grows and the resulting larva generally migrates to the ant's head. The larva lives there for weeks--slurping up the brain and turning the ant into a "zombie," in some cases compelling the ant to march 55 yards (50 meters) away from its colony to avoid attack by other fire ants.Finally the baby fly decapitates its host and hatches, exiting through the ants head, as shown in the pictures in this gallery.(Related: "'Zombie' Roaches Lose Free Will Due to Wasp Venom.") U.S. scientists regularly release several species of phorid flies to control alien fire ants, which have spread across the southern U.S. during the past half century and outcompeted many native ant species. Now scientists have released a new species of phorid, Pseudacteon obtusus (not pictured), for the first time in the U.S., Texas A&M University announced May 11. Released in southern Texas in 2008 and eastern Texas in April 2009, P. obtusus is the first phorid released in the U.S. that is known to attack ants as they forage. In theory, feeding ants are more vulnerable to attack than those hunkering down in hidden nests.The flieswhich don't have a taste for native U.S. antsalso drive the frightened fire ants into their nests, freeing up more food for the indigenous ants.It's about "leveling the playing field for native ants. We're trying to restore the balance," said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas.
—Photograph courtesy Sanford Porter

Boob Relief

When faced with tight circumstances, you need not get all uptight. This little stress-reliever may help (but will be pretty hard to put away) -



Or you can (joyfully) tune in to your favorite station:


(image credit: weirdgizmos)

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Heavy Duty, Industrial-Model, Steam-Powered Dildo from 1891

...rejected by U.S. Patent Office in the same year. Good.



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Now lets see what's cool in the kitchen (where guys rarely spend time, other than nurturing a beer)

Eccentric devices that will blow your mind.
(some may be nsfw)

Just when you think you saw them all... Here is another delightfully wacky crop of gadgets and thingies, designed to help us and simplify our life - but most miserably failing in this respect, only increasing the befuddlement and confusion! Judge for yourself:

Finger Stretcher for the Aspiring Pianist

Hailing from somewhere around 1900s, this device is painful even to look at. "According to one source, Robert Schumann permanently wrecked his right hand and ended his career using an early version of one of these contraptions." Enough said. (Seen here, with more info.)



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The Earliest GPS

That would be "The Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator" from 1927... Not only it's the earliest navigation wrist gadget, but it's also wind-up ! Something your 5-year old would love.

Insert an interchangeable map into this route indicator and never get lost - even if the whole nav-sat system goes down. (More info).


(image credit: Phillip Toscano)

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The Window Climbing Robot "Brainizord"

There seems to be no other reason for this machine's existence, other than a simple pleasure of watching it climb up your window. It will also flash and blink their lights for you, imagine that.
You can order it here



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Worried about a fish bladder not being properly inflated?

Seen here, this must be the utmost in cryptic gadget application:

"Fish Bladder Inflation Device"
Fish Bladder is encased in glass and inflated by applying force to the handles. Why? I am not sure I want to know:



"Lettuce Safety Deposit Box"

Hiding your valuables inside the head of iceberg lettuce seems like a great idea (unless the burglar happens to be very hungry and vegetarian).

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Paper LP

It works. It produces sound. Even your kid can make one. More info.





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Plushy Plagues for Your Children

Count them: locusts, frogs, cattle disease, gnats - all very cute and (attractive???) More info.



They even roll their eyes and wiggle their tails.

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Transparent Household Appliances

Can't take your eyes off your dirty dishes? Watch them get clean... Watch your dirty laundry rotate around (or on the second thought, find something better to do)


(image credit: Tokyo Mango)

"National Electronics" makes them. In Japan, of course. As a bonus, watch your toaster being made, too - order:


(image credit: inventables.com)

And then play tic tac toe with it. (if you are lonely at breakfast) - order:


(image credit: mcphee.com)

Even better for high-tech kitchen:
Zero Gravity Magnetic Spice Rack - order



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Other pearls of human ingenuity and design wisdom:


Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife: info and order it here


Purse-styled laptops, see more here


(image credit: yankodesign)

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And - The Winner?

The Audible Detector

Purpose: Electrical detection of lost and haunted souls, and machine gibberish.

It has its very own HAIRY ear/ throat. It makes accordingly throaty and hairy sounds. However, during daylight hours it produces mostly static. Oh well, you can at least turn its knob.


But "when the sun goes down, affecting upper-atmospheric radio conditions, a disturbing mixture of radioteletype, weather station images, and international proselytizers blur into an auditory hallucination."

More info. Made by the wacky & wonderful WPS, which we already featured in our previous issues.

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No, we digress - The Winner among the "World's Weirdest Devices" is...

The Device!

(Patented) Process Indicating Apparatus. It indicates PROCESS. Any process. It even has its own web page with FAQ.




(designed by David Glicksman)

Certainly, if it's not lit up, then you must be really in the backwater of the world, where nothing surely is happening. You might consider start doing something, just to make your little device happy.