Bosses at fast food giant McDonald's chose Canterbury to launch a nationwide bid to get rid of the term 'McJob', which they say insults thousands of honest workers across Britain.
The company has organised a national petition calling for UK dictionaries to drop the existing definition of the word "an unstimulating low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector".
The term "McJob" was invented by Canadian author Douglas Copeland in his 1991 novel "Generation X: Tales Of An Accelerated Culture".
APThu, 24 May 2007 12:37 UTC
Customs officers at Cairo's airport on Thursday detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.
BBCFri, 25 May 2007 11:15 UTC
A Cornish man says he has broken the world record for sleep deprivation by staying awake for 11 days and nights.
Tony Wright, 42, from Penzance, was trying to beat the Guinness world record of 264 sleepless hours set by Randy Gardner in the US in 1964.
He fought off tiredness by drinking tea, playing pool and keeping a diary.
The Guinness Book of Records has since withdrawn its backing of a sleep deprivation class because of the associated health risks.
Stylish shoes receive zip code. Handbags demand equal recognition.
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©Stonyfield Farms
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Shoes stop to chat before touring their new home.
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Comment: A representative for the Handbag's commented on the lack of respect given to purses around the world. "Who do those shoes think they are? We're the ones who hold the money. Those shoes are nothing without a matching bag to hold the credit cards for shopping."
The shoes declined to comment. However, a pair of open toed, gold lame, two inch spiked sandals were reported to have whispered, "We're doomed".
A naked American tourist raised eyebrows when he went for a walk through a German city and told police he thought this was acceptable behavior in Germany.
"We have been having unusually hot weather here lately but, all the same, we can't have this," a spokesman for police in the southern city of Nuremberg said Tuesday. "The man said he thought walking around naked was tolerated in Germany."
Many Germans enjoy nude sunbathing which is allowed in public parks. The 41-year-old was carrying his clothes in a bag when police stopped him Monday evening after complaints from pedestrians.
eitb24Wed, 23 May 2007 10:02 UTC
In an orderly fashion the 700 cows on the farm queue up for milking, with no fuss, no stress and very little mooing. The sharps and flats, bass and alto of Mozart's music have been found to be the perfect mix of tonality: enough to get the cows to relax but not too soothing that they fall asleep.
AFPThu, 24 May 2007 07:45 UTC
Scientists desperate for reluctant sharks to mate plan to pipe the romantic music of Mozart, Beethoven and Puccini into their north-west England aquarium tank.
Can you be fired for gossiping about your boss? Four town employees here say they were, raising questions about fairness, free speech and a staple of life in the American workplace.
The employees were fired in April after speaking to a lawyer the town hired as a fact-finder to rout out chatterboxes.
They say questions about a close relationship between Town Administrator David Jodoin and a female employee, identified only as "A" in the lawyer's report, drifted into Town Hall sometime in March. They say they weren't the only ones who discussed the rumor, and dismissed it as untrue after briefly talking about it.
"We didn't start the rumor, nor did we say there was an affair going on," Joanne Drewniak said Tuesday. "We didn't have time like they think ... to sit around and just gossip. That is so untrue."
Just how much cash they might have raised no one can say, but for students of photography the three glass-plate images that Charlotte Albright found in her attic in Buffalo, New York state, last summer are little short of priceless. Happily, the pictures are not bound for an auction house but rather the venerable George Eastman House museum in Rochester, which will display them this autumn. They are remarkable in many ways, not least because they are by Edward Steichen and - though a century old - are in colour.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Police are asking Colorado women a rather delicate question: Are these your panties? As part of an investigation into widespread underwear theft, police have invited women to view photos of about 1,300 undergarments stolen from laundry rooms near Colorado State University.
Comment: A representative for the Handbag's commented on the lack of respect given to purses around the world. "Who do those shoes think they are? We're the ones who hold the money. Those shoes are nothing without a matching bag to hold the credit cards for shopping."
The shoes declined to comment. However, a pair of open toed, gold lame, two inch spiked sandals were reported to have whispered, "We're doomed".