Weird But True

[E40FDNYL35]

March 14, 2005 -- Pay up — or else! That's the word from the Knox County Public Library System in Tennessee, which has hired a collection agency to track down book borrowers who don't pay their overdue fines. Library spokeswoman Mary Pom Claiborne insists, though, "We're not going to break your legs over this."

[E40FDNYL35]

Beware the Ides of March!

















It is said that Julius Caesar decided to attend the Senate on the 15th of March. On his way to the Senate, Caesar "accidentally" met up with the astrologer. Upon seeing the astrologer, Caesar confidently informed Spurinna: "The Ides of March are come." Spurinna answered, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." Later that day - on March 15, 44 B.C.E - Caesar's enemies assassinated him in the Pompey theater, at the foot of Pompey's statue, where the Roman Senate was meeting that day in the temple of Venus.

[NJFFSA16]

Paying by Fingerprint at the Supermarket
BERLIN (Reuters) - Customers of a German supermarket chain
will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their
finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving the time spent
scrabbling for coins or cards.
An Edeka store in the southwest German town of Ruelzheim
has piloted the technology since November and now the company
plans to equip its stores across the region.
"All customers need do is register once with their identity
card and bank details, then they can shop straight away," said
store manager Roland Fitterer.
The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those
stored in its database along with account details.
Edeka bosses said they were confident the system could not
be abused.

[NJFFSA16]

Putting a Lid on Rampant Manhole Theft
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital is testing a new kind
of manhole cover to put a lid on rampant theft, Xinhua news
agency said on Sunday.
Missing manhole covers are a hazardous fact of life on the
sidewalks and roads of Beijing where they are stolen to be sold
as scrap for a couple of dollars each.
"The new manhole covers will be made of non-metal materials
with no recycling value," Wang Xin, spokesman for the city's
utilities management department, was quoted as saying.
Beijing has more than 600,000 manhole covers across the
city owned by 18 companies. "Approximately 240,000 manhole and
street- drain covers were stolen in Beijing in 2004," Xinhua
said.

[NJFFSA16]

Chewing gum thieves hit jackpot in Germany
BERLIN, March 15 (Reuters) - Thieves with a fondness for
chewing gum broke into an isolated storage hall in the western
German town of Steinfurt and made off with 200 fully loaded gum
machines, police said on Tuesday.
The machines and their contents were worth more than 10,000
euros ($13,400), police said.
"We don't have a clue," said one police spokesman. "We can
only assume they used a large truck to get away with so many
machines."
REUTERS

[NJFFSA16]

Malawi leader's ghost fears draw scoffs, sympathy
By Mabvuto Banda
BLANTYRE March 14 (Reuters) - Malawians prayed for their
president on Monday after officials said he had left his
300-room mansion in the capital because of fears it was haunted.
Newspapers, however, slammed the spooky talk from the
presidency and asked President Bingu wa Mutharika to get on with
fighting poverty in the southern African state.
Officials in Mutharika's office said on Sunday the
73-year-old president, a former economist with the World Bank,
had decamped from the $100 million presidential State House in
central Lilongwe because he feared it was haunted.
On Monday, an official in Mutharika's office charged with
overseeing religious affairs said exorcisms were being said on
the mansion's grounds while prayer sessions were taking place in
churches in Llilongwe and Blantyre, the commercial capital.
"We continue with prayers that not any harm, not any power,
not any strategy designed from the pits of hell will be able to
prosper against the president," the Rev. Malani Mtonga said.
Malawi's newspapers were less sympathetic, with one accusing
Mutharika of "nascent paranoia" following a recent string of
run-ins with his still-powerful predecessor Bakili Muluzi.
"The president does not have to let us make imaginary evils,
when he knows pretty well that we have so many real ones to
encounter, like how is he going to deliver on his (election)
promises," the Daily Times said in an editorial.
Malawi's State House has had a chequered past since it was
constructed in 1975 by former President-for-Life Hastings Banda.
Although he lavished a fortune on the Persian-style brick
palace, Banda ultimately decided not to live there -- a move
some of his former associates said was spurred by the discovery
that it was constructed on an ancient burial site.
Muluzi, who unseated Banda in 1994, also shunned the ornate
official residence which he said displayed "obscene opulence."
The building had since been used to house Malawi's
parliament but Mutharika ousted the legislature late last year
to move in himself saying he needed to be close to other arms of
government -- a move widely criticised in a country which is one
of the poorest in the world.
Mutharika has sought to downplay the ghost talk, telling
reporters on Sunday "I have not met any ghosts yet, I have never
in my life been afraid of them."

[NJFFSA16]

Drug runners use sheep, goats as "mules" in Iran
TEHRAN, March 13 (Reuters) - Question: How do you turn a
goat into a mule? Answer: Make it swallow several kilos of
narcotics.
Police in southeastern Iran on Sunday found 38 kg (84 lb) of
opium hidden in the stomach of nine sheep and goats, Iran's
official IRNA news agency said.
The animals had apparently been forced to swallow the
narcotics by drug traffickers bringing the product over from
neighbouring Afghanistan en route to western Europe.
Drug smugglers who swallow packets of cocaine or heroin in
an attempt to avoid detection are often referred to as drug
"mules."

Reut10:56 03-13-05

[NJFFSA16]

China parks to curb throwing horses to the lions
BEIJING, March 16 (Reuters) - Safari parks in China have
agreed to stop feeding their lions and tigers large live
animals such as horses -- at least in public.
The gory eating habits could lead visitors to believe that
animals, both hunter and prey, were only human playthings,
Xinhua news agency on Wednesday quoted Xie Youxin, the deputy
general manager of the Wild Animal World in Chengdu, as saying.
"The bloody scene could also have implanted violent
tendencies in youngsters," he said. Chengdu is the capital of
southwestern Sichuan province.
Managers of 22 of 30 safari parks nationwide who signed an
agreement last week said they acknowledged that wild animals
had the same sense of "agony, terror and annoyance" as human
beings.
Animal rights activists have criticised the state of
China's zoos and the mistreatment of wild animals captured for
their fur, or in the case of bears, for the healing power of
their bile.
But the safari park agreement only restricts the release of
large domestic animals, such as oxen and horses, during the
presence of visitors, the agency said.
"Feeding when the park is not open is permitted. Parks are
allowed to continue to sell small birds for visitors to feed
the wild beasts."

Reut22:06 03-15-05

[NJFFSA16]

How embarassing

Sex Doll Sparks Bomb Alert at Postoffice
BERLIN (Reuters) - A blow-up sex doll sparked a bomb alert
in a German post office after it started to vibrate inside a
package awaiting delivery, police said Wednesday.
"Workers were unsettled when it began vibrating and made
strange noises," a spokesman for police in the eastern city of
Chemnitz said. "They were worried the package might be a bomb."
Officers brought the sender to the scene and discovered the
source of alarm was an electrical device inside a life-size
female sex doll. The man told police he had wanted to return
the doll because it kept turning itself on at the wrong moment.
Order was restored after the sender removed the doll's
batteries so the defective product could be returned.

[NJFFSA16]

Commercial Leaves Kids Too Scared to Watch TV
LONDON (Reuters) - A Marmite commercial that parodied
1950's science fiction film "The Blob" has been banned from all
children's' programs in Britain after leaving kids too scared
to watch television, the advertising watchdog said.
Two Marmite adverts featured a giant brown blob rolling
along a crowded street, terrifying some people who tried to
flee while others ran toward it with delight.
The ad ended with Marmite's slogan: "You either love it or
hate it."
Six people complained to the Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA) that their toddlers had been terrified by the
adverts, with four refusing to watch television after seeing
them and two suffering nightmares.
Unilever Bestfoods, makers of the dark brown savory spread,
argued against imposing a tougher "ex-kids restriction" as
broadcasters were likely not to show it during general programs
such as "Pop Idol," which attracted younger viewers.

[NJFFSA16]

Texan turns in pacemaker cut from mother's chest
HOUSTON, March 16 (Reuters) - A Texan has returned to
authorities the pacemaker he carved from his dead mother's
chest, causing an evidence tampering charge against him to be
dropped, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
"No one wants to prosecute someone whose mother just died,"
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Leslie LeGrand III
said.
James Allan Donalson, 59, acknowledged removing his
mother's pacemaker after she died in January, saying he wanted
to keep it as part of long-running a dispute with a medical
supplier.
Prosecutors told Donalson the charge would be dropped if he
returned the pacemaker so the medical examiner's office could
study it. He resisted, but LeGrand said Donalson's brothers
eventually convinced him to relent about two weeks ago.

Reut18:35 03-16-05

[E40FDNYL35]

March 17, 2005 -- Josiah Johnson of Moorhead, Minn., has to make a big decision — either he quits drinking and driving or he replaces his vanity license plate. He figures the sheriff's deputy who pulled him over and arrested him for DWI was tipped off by the plate: TIPSY. Johnson insists TIPSY has nothing to do with his personal habits. He claims it describes the way his last car, a Jeep, rode

[E40FDNYL35]

March 18, 2005 -- I have a hangover

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Originally posted by E40FDNYL35
March 18, 2005 -- I have a hangover

THAT'S not weird .... for you











After all, we all know how much you love the St. Paddy's Day celebrations in NYC every year! hehehe

[E40FDNYL35]

After all, we all know how much you love the St. Paddy's Day celebrations in NYC every year! hehehe

YES I DO...

March 19, 2005 --A Stamford, Conn., cop has been charged with lewd conduct — for flashing a toy banana. Police said Arthur Bertana, "wearing extremely tight pants with an obvious bulge," would greet people on a busy street, draw attention to himself, and then flash "a yellow, plush child's toy banana" with "a smiley face on it." Wonder if he was wearing Fruit of the Loom.

[distchief60b]

I guess there is meaning to the question: "Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

[NJFFSA16]

Woman's Scooter Blown Up in Security Scare
LONDON (Reuters) - Heidi Brown was told she could park her
new scooter outside the vehicle registration office while she
waited to get license plates.
To her horror, it was blown up by the army after someone
reported that it might be a bomb.
Police in Ipswich, eastern England, confirmed on Thursday
that a moped had been blown up in a controlled explosion after
local business people "raised concerns" that it could be a
bomb.
"The moped was chained to the perimeter fence outside the
building. We weren't able to identify whose vehicle it was
because there were no license plates on it," said a spokeswoman
for Suffolk police.
She said the surrounding office buildings were evacuated
and three roads were closed off.

[NJFFSA16]

Indian woman kills herself so blind sons can see
NEW DELHI, March 21 (Reuters) - An Indian woman committed
suicide so her two blind sons could receive her eyes and see, a
newspaper reported on Monday.
But doctors say the chances of success are bleak, The
Indian Express reported.
Thirty-seven-year-old Tamizhselvi's sons, Kumaran, 17, and
Kumar, 15, have been blind since birth.
Doctors in the southern city of Chennai say Kumar's
condition cannot be helped with a cornea transplant and also
suspect his elder brother does not have a cornea defect.
"We had told the family earlier itself that a corneal
transplant was not needed for the younger son," the Express
quoted hospital official G. Seethalakshmi saying.
The family is insisting Tamizhselvi's corneas can only be
used for her sons and no one else.

Reut21:43 03-20-05

[NJFFSA16]

Elderly Norwegian drives drunk in wrong car
OSLO, Norway (AP) - A 79-year-old Norwegian might have gotten
away with a quick but drunken drive to the gas station to buy
tobacco, except for one thing.
He drove off behind the wheel of someone else's car, the local
Internet newspaper Vesteraalen Online reported Thursday.
A court this week handed the man, whose name was not released, a
three week suspended jail sentence and a 13,000 kroner (US$2,125,
euro1,588) fine, and revoked his driver's license for three years.
In the incident, which occurred last year, the Norwegian arrived
at a gas station in an aging Opel from the 1980s. When he left in a
different and newer Opel, gas station staffers got suspicious and
called the police.
Police found the car about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) away, with
the man sitting in the back seat not far from his home in Boe, on
the Vesteraalen Islands off northwestern Norway. He had realized
that the car wasn't his, the report said.
A blood test revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.11 parts per
million, or more than five times the allowable limit in Norway of
0.02 parts per million.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

German record lottery winner rushes back to work
BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) - Germany's biggest individual
lottery winner had no time to celebrate after becoming 20.4
million euros ($27 million) richer because he was too worried
about being late for work.
When the salesman, who was not identified by WestLotto,
arrived on Thursday to buy his weekly lottery ticket at a shop
in the industrial Ruhr area he was told last week's 12-euro
ticket that he hadn't bothered to check had won the jackpot.
The man's reaction left the lottery operator dumbfounded.
"After he was told he had won the jackpot, he said he didn't
have time to chat because he would get into trouble with his
boss," a lottery spokesman in the western city of Muenster said.
Instead, he rushed off to catch a bus to work.
There were few details about the lucky man, a
pigeon-lover in his 30s, except that he planned to trade in his
rented apartment for something a little bigger in the country.
It was not known if he would stay on in his job as a salesman.