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Venice to ban rice at weddings over pigeons


Reuters
Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:27 UTC
Throwing rice at newly-weds will soon be banned in Venice as the city steps up its fight against pigeons soiling its squares and chipping away at monuments.

The mayor of the canal city is preparing a measure to stop pigeons banqueting outside the central Palazzo Cavalli, where civil weddings are celebrated, municipal police chief Marco Agostini said on Monday.
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Attention

Holocaust song title has firm squirming


Reuters
Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:55 UTC
Canada's biggest phone company has apologized after a punk-rock reference to the Holocaust appeared on billboard advertisements for its cellphones.

The ads for Bell Canada's Solo discount service showed a young woman decked out in flashy punk rock attire, with a button that reads "Belsen was a gas" -- the controversial title of a song by the Sex Pistols, and a reference to Nazi Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
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HAL9000

Cell Phones Can Watch What You Eat, So You Can Become A Robot

Robin Lloyd
LiveScience
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:52 UTC
Talk about watching what you eat.

Dieters will soon be able to send a cell-phone camera photo of their meals to a computer that will accurately gauge what's on their plates and then send back feedback.
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Bomb

Hedgehog in a spin


Associated Press
Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:21 UTC
A young hedgehog has been named Lucky after surviving a spin in a washing machine.

The female "hoglet", about eight weeks old, was washed and tumbled at a house in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. She had made her way into a pile of washing that was put into the machine.
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Video

Burglar says TV taught him his craft


Associated Press
Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:42 UTC
A man who says he learned how to rob homes by watching a TV show was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a string of burglaries in central Kentucky.

Michael W. Hobbs, 36, of Waco, Ky., pleaded guilty to five counts of burglary. He was sentenced Thursday.

Police said Hobbs learned how to break into homes by watching the Discovery Channel TV show "It Takes a Thief." The show features two ex-convicts who show property owners how vulnerable they are to theft.
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Wine

Oktoberfest for dogs


Ananova
Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:00 UTC
Dogs are to get their own version of the famous Munich beer festival.

Dogs that are brought to the Bunter Hund cafe in the Austrian capital Vienna will be given special beer for canines, pretzels and traditional Bavarian veal sausage just like at the real Oktoberfest.

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Magic Hat

Czech speedway rider knocked out in crash wakes up speaking perfect English

Chris Brooke
Daily Mail
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:23 UTC
When Matej Kus's teammates heard him talking after he was knocked out in a speedway accident, they were relieved he was conscious.

But they were also a little surprised.

For although the 18-year- old Czech knew only the most basic English phrases, he was conversing fluently in the language with paramedics.

©NNP
Czech Matej Kus, 17, was banged on the head in a racing accident - and came to speaking perfect English.
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Bizarro Earth

The €19 alibi - for when life gets a bit complicated

Alasdair Sandford
The Guardian
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:36 UTC
"Let whoever has never needed a small alibi for their little fibs cast the first stone!" The welcoming comment on the company website sets the tone. Suffocating in the family pressure-cooker and need some air? In the midst of a "passing adventure" but don't want to jeopardise your marriage? Then Alibila claims to have the answer.

The company is France's first agency for adulterers who don't want to be found out. It provides alibis for a range of other situations, but acknowledges that its clients are often men who "need a little freedom".
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Smiley

The abandoned monkey who has found love with a pigeon


Daily Mail
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:06 UTC
They're an odd couple in every sense but a monkey and a pigeon have become inseparable at an animal sanctuary in China.

The 12-week-old macaque - who was abandoned by his mother - was close to death when it was rescued on Neilingding Island, in Goangdong Province.

©UPPA/Photoshot
The macaque nestles his head against his feathered friend
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Coffee

The world's greatest paintings on Etch-A-Sketch


Daily Mail
Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:11 UTC
The red frame and twiddly white knobs are strangely familiar.

But the astonishing images on the screen are not.

Rather than abandon his Etch-A-Sketch to childhood, Jeff Gagliardi decided the simple toy had huge potential - and turned it into an art form.

©Daily Mail
Masterpiece: The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
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