Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Seals flip for confused Santa Cruz salmon

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Thousands of confused salmon that have showed up in the small craft harbor at Santa Cruz are fattening up sea lions, the San Jose Mercury News said Monday.

Working with the Department of Fish and Game, the Salmon Project has been releasing young Chinook salmon in Santa Cruz harbor for 14 springs, with the aim of increasing the local population.

However, the harbor is artificial. It was created by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1963, with no fresh water sources feeding it. That means salmon can't spawn, and end up being easy prey for sea lions, which the newspaper described as "big, strong, smelly, aggressive and inquisitive, and not potty-trained."

However, the problem is likely to correct itself, according to Allen Grover, a salmon expert in Fish and Game's regional office in Napa. He said the sea lions will eat the fish, and the fish will be gone, at least for this year.

"It's probably less of a problem than the time about 50 tons of anchovies went in there and they all died," Grover said. "(The) harbor smelled to high heaven."

Bare-bones house hid a skeleton

BIRMINGHAM, England, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- A British man who purchased a derelict home at auction got more than he bargained for when a man's skeleton was found in a bedroom, The Telegraph reported.

The Birmingham house had not been lived in for several years, and auctioneer Arnold Shepherd of Bigwood Auctioneers said none of his staff had gone upstairs in the ramshackle building because of safety concerns.

Police estimate the skeleton had been in the upstairs bedroom exposed to the elements by a collapsed roof for as long as two years.

Forensic testing will be done to try to determine the identity of the dead man, who is believed to have been a homeless vagrant. No foul play is suspected.

Shepherd said a "strong stench" had permeated the building, but it was assumed to be from dirt and debris, including several dead pigeons.

Skydiver survives without parachute

MALINDI, Kenya, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Lt. Charlie Williams of the Royal Army plummeted 3,500 feet after his parachute failed to open, but a corrugated iron roof of a Kenyan hut broke his fall.

Williams awakened dazed in the living room of a home with astonished faces of Kenyan villagers gazing at him, but he escaped with three cracked vertebrae and a dislocated finger.

"I don't know if I'm very lucky or very unlucky. I'm alive and frankly that's all that matters," said Williams, who is recovering at his parent's home in Bradford, England.

Army instructors thought he was doomed after he leapt from a Cessna 102 plane over Malindi Airport in Kenya, clipped the side of the plane and ended spiraling downward, head-first, the Sun reported Monday.

When he pulled his ripcord his feet became entangled in the parachute's rigging.

"Everything I tried failed," he said. "I resigned myself to the fact I was about to die."

However, he said the next thing he knew, he crashed into the roof of the house -- at an estimated 120 mph