STRANGE , ODD AND WEIRD NEWS

Man Saws Off Own Foot to Avoid Going to Work Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays. Reuters reports that an unemployed Austrian man was so dead-set against returning to work he lopped off his left foot. The unidentified 56-year-old was set to meet with a labor board to evaluate his fitness to return to the Austrian workforce on Monday when the mutilation occurred. The victim (assailant?) reportedly set his left leg atop an electric saw in his home workshop and went to town, completely severing the foot just above the ankle. Not content to leave well enough alone, the man then hobbled/bled to his kitchen and threw his foot in the oven before calling for an ambulance. Doctors were unable to reattach the foot. While his dedication and thoroughness are commendable—who thinks to cook their own foot to prevent its reattachment?—you'd think he could have just gotten a doctor's note or, you know, sucked it up. It's called "work" and not ...

A program that gave away 200,000 female condoms to women in Washington, DC prevented 23 HIV infections, according to a study published in the journal AIDS and Behavior . Why female condoms rather than the more common male variety? The study authors wrote, "It is critical that there are HIV prevention interventions entirely under the control of women, and female condoms are the only such woman initiated intervention currently on the open market." But will women actually use them? An AIDS Healthcare Foundation worker demonstrates a female condom. (AP / Amy Gutierrez) Women I talked to were skeptical. Said one, "I wouldn't use a female condom unless I had to. I prefer contraception to be relatively discreet, aesthetically speaking — whether as unseen as an IUD or the Pill, as removed from the moment as a diaphragm, and/or as clingy and sort-of camouflaged as a male condom — and my perceptio...