The RSPCA have noticed a growing problem of animals getting stuck in fly-tipped rubbish which is dumped in public… and they have released the photos to prove it.

For example, this cow somehow managed to get its head stuck in the drum of a washing machine which had been dumped in a field in Cornwall.

RSPCA say the heifer was probably curious and looking for food when it got stuck - luckily officers were able to free the cow without injury.

There was no comment on whether the cow came away with a cleaner face... but whoever dumped the washer was clearly a stupid moo.

An Italian doctor claims that he has been able to diagnose the illnesses suffered by some of the people in the world's most famous paintings.

Dr Vito Franco of the University of Palermo says the intriguing smile of the Mona Lisa was the result of very high levels of cholesterol.

He came to this conclusion by studying the details of the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, where he says he can see a build up of fatty acids around her left eye.

But he has not stopped there, he has analysed a host of renaissance works -- finding that most subjects suffered from one disease or another.

It sounds to us like someone has been watching too many episodes of House. 

A irate diner has trashed a McDonald's, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage… because she didn't like her burger.

The woman had ordered and eaten her burger at a Kansas City McDonald's, before storming up to the till and demanding her money back.

For several minutes she shouted at staff, claiming that the burger had not been made correctly, before walking off.

But five minutes later she returned carrying a large bucket of water which she threw over the counter.

She then hurled 'wet floor' signs at staff and pushed computerised tills off the countertop - it was clearly not a happy meal. 

A designer who wants to see wheelie bins double as public toilets has tested his creation on the streets of London.

Stephan Bischof thinks his 'Pee-lie Bin' could be the solution to the growing problem of public urination in city centre streets.

The Swiss designer has modified the traditional wheelie bin to include a funnel on one side which carries liquid to the base of the bin where it is converted into bio-fertiliser.

Tests in Lewisham, London, showed that (mostly drunk) people were more than happy to use the wheelie bin urinals… though convincing people to put one at the end of their garden might be  bit harder.

A man tried to purchase a CD-ROM which was mis-priced on Amazon.com for $3billion (£1,800,979,540) -- just to see what would happen.

Brian Klug says he was browsing the online store when he came across a copy of the Discovery Channel's 'Cells' CD-ROM.

Nothing too exciting there you might think, but the CD was priced at a massive $2,904,980,000 (+ $3.99 postage) and it clearly intrigued Brian.

The brave/foolhardy man from the US, assumed there was some sort of error but wanted to see what happened if he clicked to buy it - so he entered his credit card details.

Luckily for Brain (and his bank account) he soon received an email stating that they were unable to complete his order,  meaning he doesn't have the sort of debt many countries would be jealous of. 

A trainee hypnotist accidentally put himself into a five hour trance -- by practising in front of a mirror.

Helmut Kichmeier - who had been practicing his skills after taking a hypnotism course - was found staring vacantly at his reflection.

His wife says that when she returned home from work the Circus of Horrors performer, who was sat in front of a mirror, did not respond to her voice and was not moving.

She then phoned the hypnotherapist who Helmut had trained with, and he told her to hold the handset to Helmut's head, he then talked the would-be hypnotist out of the trance.

It turned out he'd hypnotised himself at 10am and was not found until 3pm. Mrs Kichmeier now has a keyword to get him out of a trance should it happen again… and she wants to.

A pair of robbers who killed themselves by overestimating the amount of dynamite they needed to break into a bank have received a posthumous award for their stupidity.

The dumb duo have been named as the winners of the Darwin Awards 2009 - an annual award which each year celebrates people who took themselves out of the gene pool by dying.

Our would-be robbers had been trying to blow their way into a Belgian ATM cashpoint in the city of Dinant, by using dynamite. But they wildly overestimated how much it would take.

The resulting blast was so large that it not only demolished the entire building where the ATM was housed, but also killed the pair instantly.

Police say their death was so quick no-one even got a chance to say to them, "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Australian lifeguards will soon get text messages when Great White sharks swim near the beaches they are patrolling.

Researchers are electronically tagging the man-eating predators with GPS units which will constantly monitor their movements.

If the sharks then get too near to a beach a satellite receiver will automatically send out emails and text messages to wildlife officials and lifeguards.

Currently 74 white sharks have been tagged and there are 20 communications-equipped monitoring stations have been installed off the Perth coast.

Bosses say they hope the network will "provide timely alerts of tagged sharks' presence close to beaches" -- obviously this is unless the lifeguard is busy playing a game on his phone at the time.

The Dunn's are not your average family -- they spend their days driving speeding vehicles, jumping through windows and setting themselves on fire.

The family-of-five from Vancouver have appeared in countless Hollywood movies including Catwoman, Poltergeist and X-Men 2.

Parents Jim and Celia think nothing of watching their children Connor, 15, Ali 11 and Austin, 9, fighting, exploding and climbing up the sides of buildings.

Amazingly the kids have never (yet) been injured while doing the crazy stunts… though Dad Jim has broke his leg seven times.

A woman called 999 to tell police that her cat was playing with string and it was annoying her.

The odd call was revealed by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to highlight the problem of nuisance 999 calls, particularly over the holiday period.

The woman called 999 over Christmas to report that her cat was playing with string and it was 'doing her head in.'

It is not known exactly how police responded, but we can guess.

Another caller over the Christmas period phoned police to say he was stuck on a patch of ice in a street in Bolton and was too scared to go forwards or backwards.