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Child lands dream job as a Swizzels Matlow sweet taster


The Telegraph
Fri, 15 May 2009 19:53 UTC
Harry Willsher
© PAHarry Willsher,12, of Billericay, Essex, will spend the next year sampling sweets after landing a job as an official taster for Swizzels Matlow
Harry Willsher, 12, will spend the next year sampling sweets after landing a child's dream job as an official taster for Swizzels Matlow.

Harry, of Billericay, Essex, beat thousands of hopefuls to be taken on by the confectionery firm for the next 12 months.

As well as sampling the sweets, he will also monitor their development at the company's factory in New Mills, Derbyshire.

Harry, who lives with his parents, two brothers and sister, was selected after writing about his love for Drumstick Lollies.
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Cow

Opera singer serenades cow herd


BBC News
Thu, 14 May 2009 18:19 UTC
Marcello Bedoni_01
Marcello Bedoni hits the right note for extra milk
A herd of Lancashire dairy cows is being serenaded by an Italian opera singer to help improve their milk production.

Farmer Bobby Gill said he hoped the music would help improve the taste of ice cream produced in a Wigan factory with their milk.

Marcello Bedoni has been singing a special selection of opera in one of the fields at the Sabden farm.
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Cheeseburger

Rotten office fridge cleanup sends 7 to hospital


Associated Press
Wed, 13 May 2009 01:00 UTC
San Jose, California - An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in.

What they found was an unplugged refrigerator that had been crammed with moldy food.
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Roses

Stimulus for the Dead

David Epstein
ProPublica
Tue, 12 May 2009 00:02 UTC
It's only fair to expect the odd clerical error amid the frantic rush to infuse the economy with cash. But assuming that only living Americans will have their wallets fattened seems like a reasonable expectation.
ProPublica Graveyard
© ProPublica

WBALTV in Baltimore reports this morning that Rose Hagner, a Maryland woman who died on Memorial Day in 1967, received one of the one-time $250 stimulus checks intended for Social Security and SSI recipients. (As we noted last week, working seniors who make over $75,000 will receive the check only to have the $250 deducted from their tax credit next spring.)

Representatives from the Social Security Administration told the station that, of 52 million checks that are out the door, around 10,000 have been sent to people who have passed away. The representatives blame the hasty June check-mailing deadline for not allowing them to peruse their records with fine-toothed combs. If 43 years wasn't long enough to get Rose off the rolls, certainly the three months since the passage of the stimulus bill wouldn't be.
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Mr. Potato

Shopper asked for proof of age to buy Asda teaspoons

Aislinn Simpson
Telegraph.co.uk
Tue, 05 May 2009 23:36 UTC
A shopper was left baffled after she went to Asda to stock up on picnic equipment and was asked for proof of age to buy a set of teaspoons.

The shop assistant reportedly informed the customer that someone had once been murdered with a teaspoon, and therefore age identification was now required.

That the woman had also bought plates and picnic ware at the Halifax branch in West Yorkshire did not appear to reassure the shop assistant as to her innocent intentions.

The receipt for the bizarre sale was published on the website nannyknowsbest, a website set up by an internet entrepreneur Ken Frost to "expose and resist the all pervasive nanny state that is corroding the way of life and the freedom of the people of Britain".
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Popcorn

Dilbert Cartoon says it all

Scott Adams
Democratic Underground
Sun, 10 May 2009 15:30 UTC
Sometimes a picture is worth ten thousand words.
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Mr. Potato

Comedian sneaks into US State department


UK Telegraph
Fri, 08 May 2009 16:29 UTC
Comedian Armando Iannucci got past security guards at the US State department in Washington with a pass which "could have been produced by a child", in what he described as "probably international espionage".
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Black Cat

Australian PM Kevin Rudd 'threw a wobbly' over hairdryer

Bonnie Malkin
Telegraph
Sat, 09 May 2009 12:15 UTC
Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, has been accused of losing his temper during a trip to Afghanistan because troops could not find him a hairdryer before a photo opportunity.

Kevin Rudd_OZ
© Getty ImagesKevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, reportedly became angry when troops could not find him a hairdryer
John Cobb, an opposition frontbench MP who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, claimed Australian troops had told him that Mr Rudd "threw a wobbly" during the visit, and said the soldiers at the Australian base of Tarin Kowt were "going on and on about it".

The incident was alleged to have occurred when Mr Rudd embarked on an unannounced visit to pay tribute to troops serving the war zone before Christmas last year.
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Bell

Financial crisis inspires Tori Amos' latest album

Michelle Nichols
Reuters
Thu, 07 May 2009 15:31 UTC
Tori Amos_01
© REUTERS/Lucas JacksonMusician Tori Amos poses for a portrait while promoting her new album "Abnormally Attracted To Sin" in New York March 26, 2009.
U.S. singer and songwriter Tori Amos says she was inspired by the financial crisis to question the definition of power and success in relationships on her latest album Abnormally Attracted To Sin.

Amos is known for her emotionally heavy songs about topics such as sexual abuse and religion and her 10th studio album, to be released on May 19, is no different. It features songs on difficult topics including a suicidal mother and how relationships are affected by pressure from events like the financial crisis.

"The world has changed completely, it seems, in the past two years. The world that we all knew before, could wake up in feeling safe, ... now it seems that everything has been turned upside down," Amos told Reuters in an interview.
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Propaganda

Student's Wikipedia hoax quote used worldwide in newspaper obituaries

GENEVIEVE CARBERY
Irish Times.com
Fri, 08 May 2009 17:06 UTC
A WIKIPEDIA hoax by a 22-year-old Dublin student resulted in a fake quote being published in newspaper obituaries around the world.

The quote was attributed to French composer Maurice Jarre who died at the end of March.

It was posted on the online encyclopedia shortly after his death and later appeared in obituaries published in the Guardian, the London Independent, on the BBC Music Magazine website and in Indian and Australian newspapers.

"One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear," Jarre was quoted as saying.

However, these words were not uttered by the Oscar-winning composer but written by Shane Fitzgerald, a final-year undergraduate student studying sociology and economics at University College Dublin.
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