Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Coffee

Britain's first 'no-alcohol pub' opens

The Halal Inn in Oldham has a juice bar, snooker tables and darts.

Traditional Islamic nasheed songs are piped into the bar and boards for karam, a billiards-style game popular across Asia, are on hand.

The inn also features a prayer room and steam room - but no beer. Wine and spirits are also banned.

Image
©MEN
The owners spotted a gap in the market

Coffee

UK: Animal dung coffee at £50 a cup

A gourmet coffee blended from animal droppings is being sold at a London department store for £50 per cup. Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean are used to create Caffe Raro which is thought to be the most expensive cup of coffee in the world.

Kopi Luwak beans are eaten, then passed, by the cat-like Asian palm civet, and sell for £324 a kilogram. All profits from sales of the coffee at Peter Jones in Sloane Square in April will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Heart

Boy, 11, steers runaway school bus to safety

Cleveland, Ohio - The 11-year-old boy who steered a runaway school bus to safety said Wednesday he did it because he saw a truck coming at them and because his brother also was on the bus.

David Murphy said he worried afterward that he might get in trouble for jumping into the driver's seat, but he said police and fire officials reassured him that he did the right thing, and so did his classmates.

Wine

Waiter-less restaurant a hit with Germans

Germany's reputation for efficiency has been taken to a new level after an inventor and amateur chef dispensed with the need for waiters by designing an automated restaurant.

Smiley

Parrot Tales: Spreading the F-word

A foul-mouthed parrot, who once told a vicar to f*** off, has been teaching other birds how to swear.

Barney the macaw has refused to clean up his act despite being taken to a language specialist, reports Metro.

His most shocking outburst was when he told a mayoress, a vicar and two police officers to 'f*** off' and called them 'w******' when they visited Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary in Nuneaton.

And the seven-year-old macaw has now been spreading his obscene vocabulary to two other parrots, Sam and Charlie, at the centre.

Smiley

Stolen 6ft penguin found

Rugby club officials had no problem p-p-p-p-icking out a missing person when they were called into Wigan police station - it was a six foot toy penguin!

percy the penguin
©Unknown
Jailbird ID: Percy the Penguin ... and how he might look along with the Usual Suspects

Beer

Will "Flying Squirrel" Suit Let Skydivers Jump Without Chutes?



Flying Squirrel Suit
©Olivier Renck/Aurora/Getty Images
A BASE jumper leaps off a 1,200-foot-high (4,000-meter-high) cliff wearing a wingsuit of his own design in Switzerland on July 15, 2002. Designers the world over are in a race to develop the first wingsuit - a special dive suits that resembling a flying squirrel costume - that a person can land safely without the aid of a parachute.

It sounds crazy, and it probably is: Skydive from 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) and land safely - without a parachute - wearing a getup that resembles a flying squirrel costume.

Grey Alien

UFO Guy gives an interview

This is a great example of how you are turned away from looking at things you aren't supposed to look at. It's also fairly funny.

Pumpkin

Italy: Putting it off

Could Italy's election be postponed?

Smiley

Kids' Dress-Up Day Draws Christian Ire

REEDSBURG, Wis. - An elementary-school event in which kids were encouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of a Christian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to the district office.

Students at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex.