Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Ladybug

Tongue-tied Clinton gets warm welcome

Hillary Clinton Brussels
© Associated Free Press - John ThysUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) speaks with Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini (C-back) and Lithuanian Foreign minister Vygaudas Usackas during a photo at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. The United States and Lithuania signed an agreement here Monday aimed at making it easier to prosecute suspected financial criminals, computer hackers and violent extremists.
Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.

Clinton has set herself a grueling pace on visits to Egypt, Israel and Brussels soon after touring the Far East, attending dozens of meetings and giving speech after speech, with little time worked into her schedule for sleep.

Tiredness appeared to show Friday when she answered questions in front of 500 young Europeans at the European Parliament, where she was the highest-ranking U.S. visitor since the late President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Coffee

Costa Coffee's taster has tongue insured for £10 million

Coffee taster Gennaro Pelliccia, who samples products for Costa Coffee, has had his tongue insured for £10 million with Lloyd's of London.

Gennaro Costa Coffee Tongue
© PA Costa Coffee's Gennaro Pelliccia, Costa's chief taste tester who has had his tongue insured by Costa for 10 million.
This is not the first time that a person has attempted to protect their taste buds in this way. Egon Ronay back in 1993 insured his palate for £250,000, arguing that without this asset he would be like a sculptor shorn of his hands.

Mr Pelliccia's policy - worth forty times Mr Ronay's - is testament to insurance inflation in the last 15 years, as well as the importance of high street coffee chains to the national economy.

Smiley

Inmate arrested breaking into jail

Authorities say they arrested an escaped jail inmate trying to sneak back into the lockup with cigarettes allegedly stolen from a nearby store.

Sheriff Tommy Gregory said 25-year-old Harry Jackson had opened a door to the exercise yard and climbed the outer fence.

No Entry

Tree named No Parking after sign

A species of tree has been officially named No Parking after the warning sign nailed to the first example found.

The type of whitebeam, found in a lay-by near a National Trust staff car park in Lynton, Devon, is called Sorbus No Parking.

Even its Latin title is Admonitor, meaning to tell off, reports The Sun.

Mr. Potato

From US with love, a 'reset' button gone wrong

Lavrov & Clinton
© UnknownUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hit the mistranslated button on Friday.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's gift to Russia has stirred local media to poke fun at the gaffe in translating the "reset" message.

Daily newspaper Kommersant carried the story of Friday's meeting under the punning title of "Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton push the wrong button," the BBC reported Saturday.

The piece referred to an embarrassing moment for the US during the first contact between Moscow and the new Washington administration on Friday, which both parties later described as successful regarding progress in improving recently stained relations.

Comment: Overcharged - instead of reset - describes exactly the current relationship between the US and Russia, and we do wonder whether it was a message of sorts, rather than a mistake. We are supposed to believe that a whole State Department couldn't get the translation right?


Pistol

Gun safety instructor says no liberals allowed--Obama is the antichrist.

Thirteen-year-old Lane Dunkley just wanted to go hunting with his grandfather.

What he got was a lecture on politics.

Dunkley and his father, Daniel Reddy, who live in Tulsa, went to Broken Arrow on Tuesday night for a hunter safety course normally required to get an Oklahoma hunting license.

The class was a reward of sorts. Dunkley, who wants to go hunting with his grandfather, was told he could take the class only if he brought up his grades.

Sherlock

Sleuths seek D.B. Cooper clues

A team of amateur sleuths say they are scouring Oregon and Washington state for clues to the fate of a 1971 airline hijacker who jumped from a plane.

Retired businessman and amateur scientist Tom Kaye said his team of amateur investigators have conducted experiments with money in the Columbia River to try to reconstruct the path taken by some of the cash taken by the hijacker, who called himself D.B. Cooper, The Oregonian reported Friday.

"The money is the only path to what happened to him after he left the plane," he said.

Cooper hijacked a 1971 Northwest Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle. He released the plane's passengers in Seattle, demanded $200,000 and ordered the plane to fly to Mexico City. The hijacker jumped out with the money and two parachutes somewhere over southwest Washington.

Cell Phone

To text is to sin

text
© Associated Press
The devil comes in many forms, and knows how to keep up with the times. Thankfully, so do the other side.

Only a few months ago the Pope was using his channel on YouTube to warn against our "obsessive" use of mobile phones and the net.

This week came the news that senior Italian Catholic clerics are urging their flocks to give up texting, Facebook and Twitter for Lent.

Heart

What's new pussycat? The dolphin who made friends with a curious tiger

Like a cat peering into a goldfish bowl, Akaasha the tiger cub is transfixed by a dolphin staring back at her.

Curiosity got the better of both Akaasha and Mavrick, a 14-month-old dolphin who's probably more used to a crowd of human faces gazing into his glass tank at a Californian theme park.

Dolphin and tiger cub I
© UnknownPaws for thought: Mavrick and Akaasha have a close encounter as another dolphin looks on

Mr. Potato

Using Your Debit Card During Robbery - Not a Good Idea

Would-be robbers take note: Don't use your debit card during a holdup.

A West Virginia man who police say attempted to rob a convenience store instead ended up buying a soft drink with his debit card - ultimately leading to his arrest.

Shawn Thomas Lester, 33, told the store clerk Monday he had a gun and wanted all the money in the register, police said. But the suspect got flustered when a customer walked in and the clerk told him to pay for the soft drink.

Lester handed over his debit card, then signed the receipt "John Doe" and left without any cash.