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Primary school teacher who told children: 'Santa does not exist' is fired


Daily Mail
Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:14 UTC
A primary school teacher who left a class of 25 pupils in tears after she told told them Santa Claus did not exist has been fired.

When excited youngsters became rowdy as they talked about Santa, the supply teacher blurted out: 'It's your parents who leave out presents on Christmas Day.'

The class of seven-year-olds at Blackshaw Lane Primary School, Royton, near Oldham, Greater Manchester burst into tears and told their parents when they arrived home.
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Pumpkin

Russian trademarks winking emoticon ;-)

Mike Eckel
Associated Press
Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:11 UTC
How much would you pay for a ;-)? A Russian businessman has trademarked the emoticon - or combination of punctuation marks - used to convey a wink in text messages and email.

Oleg Teterin, president of the mobile ad company Superfone, said Thursday he doesn't plan on tracking down individual users following the decision by the federal patent agency.
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Frog

Why did the alligator cross the road?


UPI
Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:50 UTC
Orlando, Fla. -- It was apparently the chicken's day off as a 5-foot alligator was spotted crossing a downtown Orlando, Fla., road, witnesses said.

Passersby said the reptile was first spotted motionless on the median of Primrose Drive near the city's downtown and began crossing the road as the crowd of onlookers grew, WFTV, Orlando, reported Thursday.

"Not something you expect to see in downtown Orlando for sure," one witness said.
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Smiley

Visa CEO loses his credit cards

Jonathan Stempel
Reuters
Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:30 UTC
Imagine running the world's largest credit card network, and not having your own plastic.

That's what happened to Visa Inc Chief Executive Joseph Saunders.

He spoke Thursday morning at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference in New York, and had come from San Francisco, Visa's headquarters.

Unfortunately, his credit cards didn't make the trip.

"I'm supposed to start off, and say that I'm very happy to be here, and I guess I am. But it's 4:15 in the morning as far as I'm concerned, and I lost my wallet on the way here," Saunders said. "It's rather embarrassing when somebody steals my credit cards." The comment prompted laughter.
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Mr. Potato

Bush: Bible 'probably not' literally true


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:19 UTC
Bush
US President George W. Bush said in an interview Monday that the Bible is "probably not" literally true and that a belief that God created the world is compatible with the theory of evolution.

"I think you can have both," Bush, who leaves office January 20, told ABC television, adding "You're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president."

Comment: When Bush expresses his innermost thoughts, we are mostly left speechless...

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Toys

10 Stories Behind Dr. Seuss Stories

Stacy Conradt
Mental_Floss
Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:27 UTC
1. The Lorax. In case you haven't read The Lorax, it's widely recognized as Dr. Seuss' take on environmentalism and how humans are destroying nature. The logging industry was so upset about the book that some groups within the industry sponsored The Truax, a similar book - but from the logging point of view. Another interesting fact: the book used to contain the line, "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie," but 14 years after the book was published, the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss and told him how much the conditions had improved and implored him to take the line out. Dr. Seuss agreed and said that it wouldn't be in future editions.

Image
© Theodore Geisel
2. Horton Hears a Who! Somehow, Geisel's books find themselves in the middle of controversy. The line from the book, "A person's a person, no matter how small," has been used as a slogan for pro-life organizations for years. It's often questioned whether that was Seuss' intent in the first place, but I would say not: when he was still alive, he threatened to sue a pro-life group unless they removed his words from their letterhead. Karl ZoBell, the attorney for Dr. Seuss' interests and for his widow, Audrey Geisel, says that she doesn't like people to "hijack Dr. Seuss characters or material to front their own points of view."
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Smiley

'Peace' the Panda bites his keeper


Associated Press
Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:33 UTC
A giant panda whose name means 'peace' bit a keeper on the leg at Hong Kong's Ocean Park, officials said today.

The panda attacked as the keeper was laying bamboo leaves in its enclosure.

Spokeswoman Christie Lau said the park keeper was recovering well in hospital after the attack.

She also said park officials were investigating the 30 November incident involving the male panda, whose name "An An" translates as "peace."
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Book

9-year-old publishes a book, reveals dating secrets

Jennifer Fermino
New York Post
Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:05 UTC
He's only 9, but this pint-sized pickup artist already knows plenty about pleasing the ladies.

So much, in fact, that Alec Greven's dating primer, "How to Talk to Girls" - which began as a handwritten, $3 pamphlet sold at his school book fair - hit the shelves nationwide last week.
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Butterfly

Missionary went to change tribe, but they changed him

Andrew Herrman
Chicago Sun-Times
Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:58 UTC
Image
© Sun-Times News GroupDaniel Everett (right) first joined up with the tribe in 1977.
The mission assigned to Daniel Everett after he graduated from Chicago's Moody Bible Institute was to change the lives of members of a tiny tribe in the Amazonian rain forest.

It was, however, Everett who was changed.

Everett, along with his wife and three children, were met in the rain forest by the Piraha people of central Brazil -- a primitive culture which has no words for numbers or colors and no concept of war or personal property. They live in the present.

For a missionary like Everett, then 26, that last part proved a stumbling block as he tried to find the language to talk about Jesus and an afterlife to people who never talk about the past nor the future.

In the end, Everett, now a linguistics professor at Illinois State University, abandoned his own religious faith, a tale he tells in his new book, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes.
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Toys

UK: Teddy bears blast off into space


The Press Association
Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:32 UTC
Teddies in Space
Teddy bears in space

Four teddies have taken a giant leap for bear-kind after being blasted to the edge of space by university boffins. The cuddly toys were attached to a helium balloon and launched 30,000-metres into the atmosphere from Churchill College in Cambridge. They were fitted out with space suits designed by schoolchildren from the city as the toys braved freezing temperatures.
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