Start the Week Weirdly News in Brief

Here's another collection of weird, wacky, wonderful and just plain WTF stories I've spotted over the past few days, including...

A rather cutesy video from the US Department of Defense that makes the war business sound like something from a Saturday morning kids' cartoon show

A video purporting to show the fossilised remains of a giant dragon in the Mauritanian desert. If you believe the video, this dragon was about 6 (yes SIX) miles long. Of course cynics would say it is just an outcrop of rock partially covered by drifting sand. But they would say that wouldn't they!

In our Irony Corner, here's a commemorative plaque at the Birmingham (UK) International Conference Centre, the home of the recent Conservative Party annual conference. The Tories spent much of their time there lambasting the European Commission, apparently oblivious to the fact the building was only constructed thanks to European Commission funding. Yeah! What has the EU ever done for the UK?

We've also a report from the BBC on Deaths by Selfie – proof that Darwin's theory of the Survival of the Fittest is alive and well today, with a mortality rate of just over 40 people a year. We have a list of the most frequent causes of death: the transport-related deaths almost all involved moving trains.

And, proof that it's never too early for bad taste, a company called Numskull Designs has just launched its 2018 "Official Geeky Knitted Christmas Ugly Sweaters and Jumpers" range. The latest designs are based on Adventure Time, Rick & Morty, Harry Potter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Batman, Fallout 76, Spyro the Dragon, Star Wars, and more. The Harry Potter sweaters apparently incorporate LED candles that light up like Hogwarts’ candles. Well at least Numskull realise ugly Christmas jumper are a joke. Not too sure about some of the people who buy them though! More info, including worldwide stockists, to be found on the Numskull website at ​http://www.numskull.com

Dangerous selfies have killed 259 people

The quest for extreme selfies killed 259 people between 2011 and 2017, a 2018 global study has revealed. Researchers at the US National Library of Medicine recommend that 'no selfie zones' should be introduced at dangerous spots to reduce deaths. These would include the tops of mountains, tall buildings and lakes, where many of the deaths occurred.