Weird eBay Auctions Prove You Can Sell Just About Anything Online!

If you have any doubt at all whether or not you can be successful on eBay, take a look at these weird auctions that have quite a bit of bid activity. If someone approached you via any other method and tried to sell you one of these items, you'd probably look around for a hidden TV camera, but on eBay, they bring good money!
How and why some of these things sell is a mystery to many, but they all have one thing in common, in every case, the seller has done a very good job marketing the items. Take a look at these auctions to learn a bit about promotion.

1) Haunted Master Warlock Power Coven Ring of Awakening

From the listing: "The powers in this piece are many, and it is for those wishing to expand their metaphysical skills to an advanced level." And that's just the beginning, it claims to have the power act as a lie detector, advance Astral ability and much more.

No way such a thing would sell you say? It's up to $51.00 with over an hour to go yet.

2) AGRIPPA OCCULT Witchcraft Magic ALCHEMY Astrology 1651

OK, this is arguably an important historical publication, but weird nonetheless. It's at $1,325.00 with over 2 hrs to go.

3) Four Leaf Clover

Yup, a real 4 leaf clover. It has a bid already, who knows where it will end.

It should be very interesting to see what some of these end at, come check the links to see the final auction price.

So if your running out of good stuff to sell on eBay, just conjure up a spell or go out in the back yard to find some things that people will bid on.

Thanks for reading.

Gas Station Employee Fired for Fighting Off Robber

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

By Sara Bonisteel

Mark Beverly

An act of bravery to defend a co-worker has cost a Minnesota gas-station attendant his job.

Mark Beverly, an overnight shift supervisor at a SuperAmerica in Roseville, Minn., was fired in March after he jumped on a masked robber who he believed was attacking a fellow employee.

SuperAmerica said he violated company policy when he came to his colleague's aid in the early morning of March 26. So instead of accolades, Beverly got the boot.

Adding insult to injury, Beverly — who is still looking for another job — has been denied unemployment benefits. He will appeal that decision on June 5.

The trouble began around 3 a.m. when Beverly was cleaning the bathroom and his female co-worker was behind the cash register. Beverly said he heard her scream, so he ran out and saw a robber wearing a blue-stocking cap jostling with her.

"It looked like he was hurting her, so I jumped on him," Beverly said. "I just tried to bang him on the counter a couple of times."

After a tussle, he said, the robber regained his footing and looked as if he was going to pull out a weapon. Beverly said the man told him, "Don't be a hero," before fleeing the store with about $15.

Beverly called police and reviewed security tapes with his managers before completing his shift. "Everything was fine," he said.

The next day, however, he was fired for violating company policy.

Marathon Petroleum Company, the owner of the SuperAmerica chain, said Beverly was told what to do in the company handbook — which advises employees to "cooperate: don't argue, resist or attack the robber" — and through a computer-based training program Beverly was required to complete when he was hired.

"He endangered himself and her, and that’s why we have the policy," said Linda Casey, a Marathon spokeswoman. "And we have enforced it with other employees, not just with him."

"I just thought it was wrong, that's all," said Beverly, who had worked at SuperAmerica for just over a year. "You're not really trained for a robbery, and that was the first robbery I have ever been in in my life."

Capt. Rick Mathwig of the Roseville Police Department said authorities advise people not to take action when faced with a robbery.

"When you start resisting at some way shape or form, the suspect who may not have intended on using the weapon that he or she came with may use it intentionally or unintentionally when faced with a conflict," he said.

Roseville police have listed the case as inactive as they have not been able to identify the robber. The only image of him is partial profile and his face is obscured by the stocking cap, Mathwig said.

The security tape did not show the female co-worker struggling with the robber over the cash-register drawer, Casey said.

"The female employee was never attacked," she said. The robber reached in and grabbed cash out of the drawer.

"We have a statement from both [Beverly] and the female employee," Casey said. "Neither one of them say anything about her being attacked, hurt or anything, and the video we have substantiates it."

Beverly said that from his vantage point, he thought she was being attacked.

"With both of them so close it looked — from the angle that I was at — it looked like she was being attacked," he said.

Click here to see video at KSTP.com.

Women win right to children without fathers

MPs decided to stick with the current 24-week abortion limit

Mark Henderson, Francis Elliott, Ruth Gledhill and Sam Coates

Single women and lesbian couples won landmark parental rights last night as MPs voted to remove the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child’s need for a father.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will replace the rule with a “need for supportive parenting” after opponents were defeated in two votes by unexpectedly wide margins.

The Government had been prepared for defeat but won the free votes by majorities of 75 and 68. The decisions mean that the legislation will grant the most significant extension to homosexual family rights since gay adoption was sanctioned.

It will stop fertility clinics turning away lesbians and single women because their children will not have a father or male role model. While the current law does not block such therapy, it is sometimes used to justify refusals.

In another landmark decision last night, MPs rejected moves to prevent women having abortions up to 24 weeks into pregnancy. In the first vote on the issue in 18 years, an attempt to reduce the limit to 22 weeks was rejected by 71 votes. An attempt to reduce the limit to 20 weeks was defeated by a majority of 142.

The defeat came despite a high-profile cross-party campaign and the decision by David Cameron, the Conservative leader, to back a reduction in the limit to 20 weeks. The Prime Minister voted to retain the existing limit.

The Government has now won all four of the measures on which it agreed to grant Labour MPs a free vote. Moves to allow the creation of hybrid embryos for medical research, and “saviour siblings” screened as suitable tissue donors for sick children, were passed by large majorities on Monday.

MPs who backed the fatherhood amendments said the traditional family would be undermined. Iain Duncan Smith, who proposed enshrining the importance of a father and mother, said that the new law would amount to telling couples that “fathers are not important, or are less important than mothers”.

The former Tory leader said there was overwhelming evidence that children without fathers were more likely to have problems at school and with drink and drugs. He also questioned whether the existing law led to genuine discrimination, as many IVF clinics already treated lesbians and single women.

His criticisms were backed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’ Connor, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, in an interview with The Times. “I think it strange that the Government should want to take away not just the need for a father but the right for a father,” he said.

The law will now be brought into line with the Human Rights Act. The Bill will also allow both partners to be recognised as parents when lesbian couples conceive with donated sperm, or gay men use surrogacy. At present, only the natural mother or father is automatically considered to be a parent when gay couples have fertility treatment.

A Times/Populus poll last month found that 40 per cent of people were against the Government’s proposals and 32 per cent in favour. It also revealed a generational divide: while over-55s were strongly opposed, 18 to 34-year-olds were strongly in favour of reform.

Lost Parrot Returns Home After Telling Veterinarian His Address

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

May 21: Yosuke the parrot rests in his cage at home in Nagareyama, Japan, after he was missing for two weeks.

TOKYO — When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said.

The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.

But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials.

"I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said.

Equal Measure Measuring Cup, Dinner Meets Cocktail Trivia

The next time you are baking a cake, be sure to note that your 380 ml of oil are enough to power a biodiesel car for 3 miles and that your 2 1/2 cups of flour has as many grains as there are people on the planet (6.8 billion). Because when using the Equal Measure Measuring Cup, you get a side of awkward metrics with our...err...metrics (and cups/oz).

monkey on a goat on a cup on a tight rope

99 Extraordinary, Creative and Unusual Uses for Ordinary and Everyday Objects

Imagine all of the silly old stuff you have sitting around the house that is simply going to waste and hasn’t been used in years. Think it’s all junk? Perhaps not. Here are ninety-nine creative ways you can use things you thought had only one purpose, from beer and soda to rulers, stamps, sugar, toothpaste, old CDs and even your iPod.

Having trouble learning how to chopstick? Think of this approach as cheap-and-easy training wheels while you learn the ropes. Inexpensive plastic clothes pins can be disassembled without tools or much effort and their spring can be reused with any generic chopsticks.

Scared to fight for the road, pitting your bike against a few tons of truck or car? Take a conventional fold-out ruler, apply something shiny and reflective and strap it to the back of your ride. Fold it out as needed and back in when parked.

Sick of those fake-smelling toilet bowl fresheners that reek like faux flowers? Get the normal hanging plastic device but swap out the insides with a tea scent of your choice - there are plenty to choose from and it will almost certainly beat out “lemon mist.”

Looking to have a professional and colorful nail job but don’t want to pay for it? Find some interesting stamps with the same or alternating patterns, trim out and apply them. This approach is more manageable and easy to remove anyway.

Prefer loose-leaf tea but find yourself forgetting to buy bags or tea balls? No worries so long as you have a handy household stapler and some tissue paper.

10 Unusual Uses for Beer: marinate meet in it, grow better grass, kill slugs, snails and mice, calm a stomach ache, polish gold, take a bath, polish furniture or cook with it.

3 Unusual Uses for Chocolate: make underwear, cars or even a dress.

6 Unusual Uses for Tooth Paste: Stop itching bug bites and minor rashes, clean up Kool-Aid stains, sooth minor burns, clean ivory piano keys, remove smells from your hands, spot clean your shoes.

6 Unusual Uses for Paper Clips: unbreakable bag closers, zipper pull replacement, cherry pit remover, bathroom door key, Christmas tree ornament hooks, reach electronic reset buttons.

10 Unusual Uses for Sugar: make cut flowers last longer, improve outdoor plant health, hand cleaner, wasp trap, soothe a burned tongue, kill cockroaches, fly catcher, start a fire, keep biscuits or cake fresh

6 Unusual Uses for Butter: remove glue from your hands, gum from your hair, swallow pills more easily, slice through sticky items, remove tree sap or even use it to shave.

10 Unusual Uses for Human Hair: test tress making, growing food, cleaning oil spills, making clothes, creating furniture, crafting art, making soy sauce, nesting material, creating rope.

10 Unusual Uses for an iPod: load text files of exam answers, plan workouts and set timing goals, load a subway map, calculate a tip, learn a language, use the light to read, repel telemarketers, facilitate geocaching, magic 8 ball or sing in the shower to tunes with a waterproof case.

5 Unusual Uses for Old CDS: mini hovercraft, disco ball, lamp, “q-ball” and sculptures

28 Unusual Uses for Coca-Cola: clean a toilet bowl, remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers, clean corrosion from car battery terminals, cook, loosen a rusty bolt, bake a moist ham, remove grease from clothes, clean rust in a bathtub, clean milk stains from clothes, make barbecue sauce, prevent an asthma attack, relieve constipation, prevent diarrhea, condition hair, fertilize azaleas or gardenias, clean eyeglasses, clean tarnished pennies, strip paint off metal patio furniture, get rid of fruit flies, boost a compost bin, prevent flatulence, relieve an upset stomach, kill slugs or snails, mousse hair, sooth a jellyfish sting, clean blood stains from clothes, soothe a sore throat, neutralize skunk odor.