Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S

Vader

Ethanol Blamed for Beer Inflation

LANCASTER, Pa. -- It's the latest example of the trickle-down economics of ethanol -- beer is getting more expensive.

Compared to this time last year, beer prices are up about 3 percent across the nation, according to the Labor Department. The increase marks the largest jump in more than two years.

One big reason, according to some brewers, is the rising cost of barley. A high demand for corn-based ethanol has many farmers devoting more fields to their corn crop and less to barley.

Bizarro Earth

Hemp field becomes a folly in the mad spirit of King Ludwig

A picture of Neuschwanstein Castle, the retreat of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, took 1,200 hours to plough in a hemp field in Utting, Germany. The enterprise celebrates a king who was a promoter of the arts and architecture and littered Bavaria with imaginative castles.

Bavarians revere the eccentric King. Musicals and songs have been composed about him and Bavarian pubs still carry his portrait.

The King's current popularity is based on admiration for his almost poetic love of building impractical castles.

Padlock

Dangerous games: Woman charged over WOW love

An Australian woman who forged a relationship with a younger World of Warcraft player has been arrested in the US as she attempted to meet with the chap and his family.

31-year-old Tamara Broome had met the 17-year-old in Azeroth when he was a year younger, and News.com.au - who we're nicking all this off, obviously - claimed that he had previously attempted to fly over there, and that they aimed to get married.

Question

Iran president rejects Oliver Stone documentary

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a proposal by Oscar-winning movie director Oliver Stone to make a film about him because Stone is part of the "Great Satan" cultural establishment, a semiofficial news agency reported.

Cut

Hair Hackers Chop Off Brazil Girl's Mane

Assailants wielding a knife and a pair of scissors attacked a young woman walking home from church and cut off most of her waist-length hair, police said on Monday.

Penis Pump

Indians use condoms as toys

India is struggling to prevent millions of condoms from being made into toys or sold as balloons.

The contraceptives were distributed free to control the country's population and restrict the Aids virus.

However, they are being used instead to strengthen roads, provide extra waterproofing for houses and to carry water.

Health activists said millions of condoms were melted down for their latex and made into toys. Others were dyed and sold as balloons.

In rural areas, villagers used them as water containers. India's soldiers covered their gun barrels with condoms as protection against dust.

Only a quarter of about 1.5 billion condoms made each year were "properly utilised", the activists said.

Attention

Unbelievable cruelty! Man beats peacock he says was vampire

A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant was attacked by a man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.

Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control.

"It's just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion," he said.

Bulb

India: 'Shiva lingam at Amarnath completely melted'

The naturally-formed ice Shiva lingam at the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in Jammu and Kashmir has completely melted, Chief Executive Officer of Shree Amarnathji Shrine Board Arun Kumar said on Sunday.

The ice Shiva lingam has melted down owing to the rise in temperature, Kumar, who accompanied Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to the cave on Sunday, said.

Bomb

London Bomb 'Not Scary Enough', Brown Tells MI5

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has dismissed the latest London bomb scare as "feeble" and "unlikely to frighten the public".


Magic Wand

What do you get if you cross a zebra with a horse?

A Zorse



Eclyse the zorse is striking proof of how an offspring inherits genes from both parents - which in her case was a male zebra and a female horse. The result is shown in her amazing coat which looks like a zebra's that has been partly covered in white paint.