Here we offer up a daily selection of the web's weirder offerings to lighten your day. Let us know if you stumble across anything you'd like to share. Have you come across a quirky story? Email us or message us on Twitter @smh.
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Forget the Booker, Pulitzer and Nobel, 10 leading writers are vying for a more macabre honour.
AP reports Scotland's University of Dundee will name its new morgue after the crime writer who receives the most votes in an online poll and fundraising drive.
The “Million for a Morgue" competition has attracted leading authors of the sometimes stomach-churning but usually plot-twisting genre, including Jeff Lindsay.
Lindsay, who created the serial-killer-with-a-code Dexter, just wants to give a little back. He described the contest as an “opportunity to make a small down payment on the huge debt I owe the forensics community".
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In Hollywood, $25,000 worth of free plastic surgery would be considered a jackpot.
But when confronted with a menu of breast enhancements, tummy tucks, liposuction and face lifts, a woman chose to take $25,000 in cash instead after winning this competition held by the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City.
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It is a contest unlikely to give pause to the architects of Australia's rabbit-proof fence.
But Europe's best bunnies have put their obstacle-jumping skills to the test in the European Kanin Hop Championships staged in Switzerland.
The Daily Mail reports more than 50 showjumping bunnies, representing countries across Europe, hopped their way around a course consisting of several small jumps as hundreds of spectators watched on.
A Danish rabbit named Yabo holds the long jump record with a leap of more than three metres, while the high jump record was set in 1997 by fellow Danish bunny Tosen who jumped about one metre.
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For those eager to “get the Led out’’, there are now two places where it is wise to think twice.
The first is a guitar store. The second is the shower.
Resisting the temptation to strum Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven in the guitar store means no dirty looks from shop assistants. Singing Love Me Do by The Beatles rather than Stairway To Heaven in the shower could help “save the planet’’, according to Thames Water – a major utility company in the UK.
Thames Water has advised people to sing "short, water-efficient" songs in the shower, the Press Association reports.
"Each of us uses 160 litres of water a day on average, and when showering use 10 litres of water a minute,’’ according to Jayne Farrin from Thames Water. “If we all cut our time in the shower by one minute a day, nationally we could save enough water to supply London for between two and four months.''
Thames Water's top five shower songs are:
1. Love Me Do, The Beatles, 2:22
2. Love Me Tender, Elvis Presley, 2:41
3. Dance Wiv Me, Dizzee Rascal (radio mix), 3:25
4. Could It Be Magic, Take That, 3:31
5. It's Raining Men, The Weather Girls, 3:31
Five songs to avoid in the shower are:
1. Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8:02
2. American Pie, Don McLean, 8:33
3. I Would Do Anything For Love, Meatloaf, 12:01 (album version)
4. Rapper's Delight, Sugar Hill Gang, 14:37
5. Echoes, Pink Floyd, 23:31
