More of the odd and fascinating from a week’s perusal of the blogosphere

According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Adolf Hitler took time out from running Nazi Germany to make jokes at the expense of his henchmen. That’s the claim of a new book by the last surviving member of his bunker anyhow (“Adolf Hitler told bad jokes about Nazi friends”). His favorite victim was the Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering; a notoriously vain and pompous bully even by Nazi standards. On this showing, Hitler made about as good a job of being a comic as he did of winning the war.

Anti-corruption investigators in China city have taken to questioning the mistresses of suspected corrupt officials to get compromising information, according to a report by Reuters (“Corrupt officials betrayed by pillow talk”). The report doesn’t explain what questioning techniques are used — or why these ladies are so willing to betray their lovers. Perhaps it’s another case of “Hell has no fury . . .”

Also from Reuters comes a report on a distinctly low-tech means to satisfy the cravings of prison inmates for drugs and cellphones (“Drugs, phones wing their way to prisoners”). It seems that inmates of a Brazilian prison were using carrier pigeons to smuggle in goods in pouches on their backs. The scheme came to light when guards on the prison walls saw some pigeons struggling to fly under the weight of smuggled goods.

Police in Australia have charged a man for drink driving in a motorized wheelchair after he was found to be six times over the legal alcohol limit (“Man in wheelchair charged with drunk driving”). He was so drunk he fell asleep in a turning lane of a major highway. Under the state’s laws, wheelchairs, bicycles, horses and skateboards are all considered to be vehicles.

Finally, a report from Canada says researchers have found participants suffered memory lapses one to three hours after consuming a high-fat, high-sugar meal. It’s believed that the problems are caused by an excess production of ‘free radicals’ — unstable molecules that damage tissue and trigger inflammation — when the unhealthy meal is digested. Maybe we now know what our leaders choose for their favorite food?