Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Stop

Lighthearted stop signs try to slow drivers with humor


The Associated Press
Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:13 UTC


©CLTV
The Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn has installed second stop signs beneath the regular ones at 50 intersections with messages, including "WHOAAA" or "Stop ... and smell the roses."

A big red sign that says "Stop" sometimes isn't enough to get everyone to stop. Maybe a laugh will get their attention.

This Chicago suburb has installed second stop signs beneath the regular ones at 50 intersections with messages, including "WHOAAA" or "Stop ... and smell the roses."
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Bizarro Earth

Woman gives birth to own grandchildren


Associated Press
Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:25 UTC
SAO PAULO, Brazil - A 51-year-old surrogate mother for her daughter has given birth to her own twin grandchildren in northeastern Brazil, the delivery hospital said.

Rosinete Palmeira Serrao, a government health worker, gave birth to twin boys by Caesarean section on Thursday at the Santa Joana Hospital in the city of Recife, the hospital said in a statement on its Web site.
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Star

Bear Rescued From Sierra Bridge Ledge


Associated Press
Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:30 UTC


©AP Photo/Truckee Animal Control, Robert Brooks
Volunteers rescued the 250-pound bear.

TRUCKEE, Calif. - A 250-pound bear stranded under a bridge near Lake Tahoe was saved by an army of rescuers, a tranquilizer dart and a nylon net bought at an Army surplus store.
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Bizarro Earth

Not Found Him Yeti - Pic Goes For £3.5k


Sky News
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:46 UTC
A photograph of a mysterious footprint believed to be that of a yeti has sold for £3,500.

A Christie's auction in London, themed on exploration and travel, included Captain Lawrence Oates' sleeping bag case from his ill-fated South Pole expedition with Captain Scott in 1912.

©Unknown
A 1951 image of a footprint

The 'yeti' footprint was photographed in the Menlung Basin in the Himalayas in 1951.

A team of mountaineers travelled to the region on a reconnaissance mission before attempting to conquer Everest for the first time, a feat achieved two years later.

A member of the expedition, Tom Bourdillon, sent it to his friend Michael Davies with an inscription on the reverse.

"Dear Mick, here are the footprint photos: sorry for the delay. We came across them on a high pass on the Nepal-Tibet watershed during the 1951 Everest expedition.
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Bizarro Earth

Donkey eats his buyer's money in Algeria; case in Supreme Court


RIA Novosti
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:26 UTC
A donkey at an Algerian market ate the money of a man who came to buy him, making the unfortunate buyer and the owner wonder who the animal belongs to, an Algerian newspaper reported.

Al Shuruk al Yawmi, a newspaper published in the northern Algerian town of Tizi Ouzou, said the customer and the seller were traditionally bargaining for price for too long and failed to notice the donkey consuming the stack of banknotes meant as a payment for him.
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Book

If you like Dr. Seuss, you might like Chukovsky


Kansas State University
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:26 UTC
While many of us in the United States were captivated by "The Cat in the Hat," many Russian-speaking children were busy reading "The Telephone."

"I thought it was the funniest children's story that I had ever read," Walter Kolonosky said of his initial reading of the children's classic by Kornei Chukovsky. "Not only does Chukovsky rhyme like Seuss -- that is, in anapest -- but he also introduces a good measure of word play."

©Vladimir Radunsky
"Telephone" written by Kornei Chukovsky translated by Jamey Gambrell

Kolonosky is a professor of Russian at Kansas State University's department of modern languages. He said the animal imagery and frequent frivolity are just a few things these two beloved children's authors have in common. Such similarities have prompted him to read Chukovsky and Seuss in a new light.
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Smiley

Mysterious Bra Theft Baffles Cops


AP
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:34 UTC
Police in Flagstaff, Arizona, are still trying to figure out how someone managed to steal hundreds of bras from a Victoria's Secret store.

The brassiere-napper was able to take about 350 of the sexy undergarments out of the store in broad daylight.

According to authorities, anti-theft tags on the bras didn't trigger the store alarm. .

And the theft wasn't captured on surveillance video.
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Wine

Manchester, UK schoolgirl's balloon found... in China


Daily Mail
Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:06 UTC
A balloon released by a four-year-old schoolgirl in Manchester was blown nearly 6,000 miles to China.

Alice Maines launched the balloon at her school's summer fair in Flixton, Greater Manchester, six weeks ago.

©Daily Mail
This graphic shows the journey made by the balloon as it travelled more than 5,000 miles from Flixton to China.

She was amazed when a boy called Xie Yu Fei wrote to say he had found it. The 13-year-old was playing with friends in the city of Guangzhou, formerly Canton, when he found the balloon in the street.

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USA

US education system on display!


Local6.com
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:40 UTC


©Local6.com

Seminole County officials are scrambling to fix a typo on a roadway after a motorist informed Local 6 that the word "school" was misspelled "scohol."
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People

The world's tiniest baby - meet the 10oz bundle of defiance


Daily Mail
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:01 UTC
When she was born, 15 weeks premature and weighing ten and a half ounces, her father's confidence was about the only thing on Kimberly Mueller's side.

In the few snatched moments he was allowed before his daughter was whisked away by doctors, Andreas Mueller spoke from his heart.

"I whispered to her: 'Kimberly, you'll make it,'" he recalled.

©Bild Zeitung
The size of a mobile phone: Kimberley Mueller weighed just over 10 ounces when she was born in Hanover, Germany - making her the world's smallest surviving baby
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