Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


No Entry

Tree named No Parking after sign


Orange
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:44 UTC
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.
Read More...
Mr. Potato

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


Press TV
Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:55 UTC
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?

Read More...
Pistol

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

Randy Krehbiel/Clifton Adcock
Tulsa World
Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:07 UTC
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.
Read More...
Sherlock

Sleuths seek D.B. Cooper clues


United Press International
Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:33 UTC
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.
Read More...
Cell Phone

To text is to sin


New Zealand Herald
Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:00 UTC
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.
Read More...
Heart

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

Sarah Titterton
Mail Online
Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:16 UTC
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
Read More...
Mr. Potato

Using Your Debit Card During Robbery - Not a Good Idea


The Associated Press
Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:08 UTC
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.
Read More...
Mr. Potato

4-Year-Old Boy Wins Rights to Tropical Island in Lottery


Reuters
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:00 UTC
Island
© Reuters/Simon KwongA boat sails across Taiwan Strait off Quemoy, a Nationalist-held offshore island about 1,800 metres away from rival China.
A 4-year-old boy has won the use of an uninhabited tropical island, with white sand beaches and clear turquoise waters, in a Taiwan lottery aimed at boosting spending during an economic downturn.

Officials said Yeh Chien-wei, who won the prize at Thursday's draw, will get exclusive rights to the tiny plot in the Taiwan Strait from May through September.

Penghu County, an offshore archipelago, will provide food, drinks, water and electricity to the boy. He has been quoted in local media saying he wants to play in the sea.
Read More...
Magic Wand

Brad Pitt, Obama in secret meeting


New Zealand Herald
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:54 UTC
pitt
© Associated PressBrad Pitt before his top-level talks with Barack Obama on Capitol Hill.
First of all, no, Brad Pitt is not short. Yes, he's handsome enough to stand out in any crowd. And, sorry, Angie wasn't with him.

From the moment he stepped into the Capitol today, sunglassed and goateed, Pitt's star power transformed congressional business-as-usual in a way any lawmaker or new president might envy.

Pitt's superpowers are such that he and President Barack Obama pulled off an improbably secret meeting on the same topic earlier in the day, White House spokesman Thomas F. Vietor confirmed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not immune to his charms. Praising Pitt for his work to rebuild New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged 9th Ward, she even allowed that meeting him affords her "bragging rights to my children and my grandchildren - a real treat for me as well."
Read More...
Book

Most Britons have lied about the books they read


Reuters
Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:44 UTC
Books Shelf
© REUTERS/Simon NewmanA customer browses the book section at an Oxfam store in Dalston in east London
Two out of three Britons have lied about reading books they have not, and George Orwell's 1984 tops the literary fib list, according to a survey published Thursday.

Commissioned by organizers of World Book Day, an annual celebration of reading in Britain, the study also shows that the author people really enjoy reading is J.K. Rowling, creator of the bestselling Harry Potter wizard series.

According to the survey, 65 percent of people have pretended to have read books, and of those, 42 percent singled out 1984. Next on the list came War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and in third place was James Joyce's Ulysses.
Read More...