Weird Week: Star Wars school, dating disaster and the potato-wielding outlaw

‘Falcon High’

Sometimes an aerial view of the world reveals unexpected delights. Last year users of Google Maps spotted strange, geometric structures in remote China, and now eagle-eyed nerds have stumbled across another - less sinister - oddity: a school in America that looks uncannily like the Millenium Falcon spacecraft captained by Hans Solo in Star Wars. While the architect admits that it was merely a co-incidence, he added: “I’m glad I’m on the Republic’s side. I’d be devastated if it looked like the Death Star.”

How not to impress your date

In the pantheon of failed chat-up lines, ‘you’re on my spreadsheet’ could probably go straight into the top ten. Investment banker David Merkur, 28, from New York, used the Microsoft Excel software to create a rankings system of his most highly-rated dates from the Match.com dating website. In a moment of inspiration, Merkur decided to forward his secret spreadsheet to date Arielle, believing she would be flattered to learn she was top. Of course, she sent it on to her friends, and before long the obsessively detailed document went viral. Merkur, at least, appears to have learned his lesson, telling the New York Post: “I will never do anything like this again”.

Blast off for i-moo-vable cows

Americans are known to love a bit of guns’n’ammo, so when you have a problem like a ranger’s cabin stuffed full of frozen cows halfway up a mountain, what do you think they planned to do? Blow them up, of course. To be fair, their reasons for the explosive solution were driven by environmental concerns to avoid water contamination, but it’s certainly a response that John J. Rambo would no doubt advocate. The cows in question were apparently left stranded in the cabin in the Colorado Rocky Mountains after wandering in during a snowstorm, giving a whole new meaning to the word ‘Fresian’.

Stop, or I’ll throw this potato!

When the chips are down, people can resort to desperate measures. Medical staff were responding to an explosion caused by a makeshift bomb at a venue in Florida’s Tarpon Springs when they were confronted by a man armed with a potato at the scene. Christopher Povlik, who was not connected with the initial incident, then made off with their ambulance but was tracked by police using GPS to a water treatment plant only a block away. There he used multiple names to identify himself, including “Maggie,” “Shadow,” and “Spartacus.” There’s a new comic book character right there.