Archive for the ‘weird’ Category

Giant tobacco firm Philip Morris is suing Australia for new laws set by their parliament, which have been set to ensure that after December 2012 all cigarette and tobacco products must be sold in plain olive-brown packets that will only display graphic health warnings.

Canberra quoted that the law was “one of the most momentous public health measures in Australia’s history”, but Philip Morris responded by saying that “the move breached a bilateral investment treaty” and “it had served a notice of arbitration under Australia’s Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong”. PMA’s Australian affiliate Philip Morris Ltd (PML) will also pursue claims under Australian domestic law.

Anne Edwards a spokesman for Philip Morris was also quoted saying; “The government has passed this legislation despite being unable to demonstrate that it will be effective at reducing smoking and has ignored the widespread concerns raised in Australia and internationally regarding the serious legal issues associated with plain packaging.”

Philip Morris is also expecting damages to be billions of dollars, but the legal process could take anything between two to three years to complete.
“We are confident that our legal arguments are very strong and that we will ultimately win this case,” Anne Edwards also quoted.
British American Tobacco Australia was also quoted earlier this month saying it would launch a challenge in the High Court as soon as the laws were granted royal assent, and that the company will argue it is unconstitutional for the government to remove its trademarks and other intellectual property without any compensation.
Under the new Australian law, the only thing that will distinguish tobacco brands on their packets will be their brands name in a standard colour, position, font size and style. Nicola Roxon from Australia’s Minister for Health and Ageing said – although the tobacco industry is “fighting to protect its profits, we are fighting to protect lives. We know that packaging remains one of the last powerful marketing tools for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers to their deadly products. In the future, cigarette packets will serve only as a stark reminder of the devastating health effects of smoking,”.

Konnichiwa!

I bet you didn’t know that the world’s first ever Robot marathon is underway in Japan! Can you believe it! It began on Thursday in the city of Osaka in western Japan in the Asia Pacific trade centre. The city – whose municipal government is funding the event - used to rely on heavy industry, but is now trying hard to sell itself as being at the forefront of robot innovation. The robots did the usual warm up exercises expected of any competent athlete before setting off.

The battery charged competitors – all five of them – are each between 30cm & 44cm in height & will be trying to complete the 26.2 mile marathon by Sunday. The distance will be covered by doing 422 laps of a 100 metre track.

The robots must compete in the race without assistance, but the company’s & universities responsible for entering the robots in the marathon are allowed to carry out running repairs & battery changes!

Japanese robot maker Vstone is responsible for organizing the event & say the robots will be tested to the limit by the marathon in terms of their durability and manoeuvrability. Their own entry in the marathon will be recording the whole of the race via a video camera which has been installed in its head. The event will be broadcast on line as it happens giving a robot’s eye view of the marathon.

There is now a well established tradition of combining the most up to date technology with athletic achievement.

This might be the world’s first robot marathon but it certainly isn’t the first event of its kind. The first robot football world cup took place in 1997 – also in Japan – in the city of Nagoya & was hosted by Japan again in 2005 in Osaka. The competition was held in Singapore last year with 40 countries competing with a total of 500 teams.

Mind you you’d have to be a real enthusiast to endure 4 days of a robot marathon!

If you want to check it out for yourself you can do so at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/robovie-pc

Be careful though – I don’t know how the robots are baring up but a couple of minutes left me feeling sick & dizzy!

Sayonara!

.

.

.

Be safe…no laughing!

We all know that we have to strap ourselves in when driving.  We can’t eat or drink when driving, no chance of using a phone and if you want to read a book behind the wheel then you might as well drive straight to the jail cell – but one motorist was pulled over in Liverpool for LAUGHING?

The motorist was shown the flashing blue and red lights, pulled over and questioned by police officers for driving under the influence of laughter.

The driver in question was Gary Saunders who was chatting to his brother-in-law over a hands-free mobile phone when he was told a joke and broke out in hysterics.

That’s a crime apparently…

Little did he know that the police that were on his tail were offended by the jovial spirits of the man and signalled him to pull over to the side of the road for a questioning session.

When he pulled over the policeman approached Mr Saunders and actually said “laughing while driving a car can be an offence.”

Mr Saunders was questioned for around half an hour which was a bit of problem for the company director of Spontex Workwear as he claimed that due to the questioning he missed an important appointment.

Mr Saunders was asked to show his license and other documents at a police station – all for laughing whilst driving…

“I couldn’t believe it when he told me I’d been pulled over for laughing.  I was driving very safely in the Birkenhead Tunnel and took a call,” clamed Mr Saunders.

“He said something funny and I was laughing - simple as that. I never took my eyes off the road and was in full control of the car.

“I definitely wasn’t speeding so I asked what the problem was and he told me I was laughing too much.”

No record – waste of time…

However, the incident wasn’t taken to be too serious by the police officer as Supt Kevin Hagger of the Mersey Tunnels Police has said, “There is no record of the incident in the system so it seems the gentleman was just spoken to by the officer and the matter not taken any further.”

However, Mr Saunders won’t be forgetting the incident too quickly as according to him it went from weird to surreal in an instant.

“The officer accused me of throwing my head back in a dangerous way, which I denied since it is definitely not something I do.

“It went from ludicrous to unbelievable. He definitely had a bee in his bonnet about something and I got the brunt of it.  In the end he reluctantly admitted that he had nothing he could accuse me of, but still required me to take my documents to the station.”

Don’t you hate that when you have five mistresses but you can only afford one.  Well I can’t say it has ever happened to me but one man in China did wake up one morning with this very problem and he thought to himself that the best way to solve the problem would be to hold a “Best Mistress Competition”.

The whole competition was going so well too – one mistress was out of the running leaving four to fight between themselves for the glorious position of being the winning mistress of the Chinese business man, who is being known as Fan.

However, Fan neglected to realise that the mistresses that didn’t make the cut might be a little up set and as the first mistress failed to progress to the next stage of the competition because of her looks she decided to drive the husband and the other four wives off a cliff according to Chinese media.

The police had originally thought that the whole situation had been an accident and the car hadn’t meant to drive off the cliff.  However they understood what happened after they found out about the contest in a letter that the aggrieved mistress had written before her drive.

The mistresses apparently knew each other but when the businessman announced that he could only afford to keep one of them none of them wanted to leave – they were living somewhat of a nice life in rent-free flat and a 5,000 Yuan monthly allowance.

The man therefore decided that the best way to judge which one would be best to keep would be through a competition and started the competition in May without any of the mistresses knowing what was going on.

Fan managed to get hold of a local modelling agency instructor to judge the mistresses and the mistresses were judged on their looks, their singing voices and how much alcohol they could handle.  Is that what we’re supposed to look for in women?

The first mistress knocked out was Yu who was a waitress in a restaurant in Qingdao when she met Fan.  She was knocked out in round one for falling short in the “looks” department.

Apparently this insult was enough to tip her over the edge as she convinced Fan and the four other wives to take a driving sightseeing trip with her before she returned home.

She then took the opportunity to put the brakes on Fan’s competition by driving the man and the four other contestants off a cliff – unfortunately for Yu she was the only one to suffer from fatal injuries and the other passengers were only injured.

According to reports, after the incident, Fan sold off his business and paid Yu’s family 580,000 Yuan as compensation for her death.  Once his actual wife had found out about the mistresses and the competition she left him and quickly behind her followed the four other mistresses.

He’s got a lighter.  Everyone down on the ground…

Smoking was never so dangerous – six police patrol cars were rushed to a scene where a man was carrying a hunting rifle in a Chinese city and the whole situation could have gotten very messy…if the hunting rifle wasn’t infact an oversized lighter.

Police in the Chinese city of Nanjing were suddenly inundated with emergency telephone calls claiming that there was a man on the loose brandishing a hunting rifle.

The police obviously responded to the emergency calls and were expecting a possible dangerous situation but instead they arrived at the scene to discover the man, clearly unaware that people around him were scared out of their skins, was simply carrying a gigantic lighter on his back.

“We sent out six patrol cars immediately, trying to stop the man before anything bad happened.

“On spotting the man, officers forced him to stop. The man was obviously very scared and said the gun was only a toy lighter, which he just won as an award in a restaurant,” commented a police spokesman.

Well, the flame was pretty hot.

After getting the supposed rifle back to the police station, the police tested the object but once they had pulled the trigger they realised the mistake that had been made as a small innocent flame poked out of the barrel of the gun.

Unfortunately the man who was allegedly stalking the streets with a deadly firearm was given a warning for carrying the lighter, which was confiscated.

The end of novelty lighters?

The news comes as fire officials in Louisville in the United States demanded that novelty lighters were removed from stores as they are apparently responsible for several deaths a year, although not because they are parading as hunting rifles.

The fire officers claimed that the lighters can easily be picked up by children who will play with what they think is a toy and then there is a strong possibility that a fire could start.

“Anytime a child can get to it and they think it’s a toy and they get by themselves in a closet and they’re playing with it and a fire starts, that’s the biggest concern we’ve got,” said Henry Ott of the Louisville Fire Department.

“Kids are playing with lighters, kids are cooking at home, using candles in the room, or they may lay a curling iron down.”

According to an arson investigator in Louisville children are responsible for around half of all fires in the United States.

No real proof…

However, the fires have not been connected with novelty lighters, partly because the United States Fire Administration only started to keep their eyes on the cigarette accessories since January of last year.

Although the move by the Fire Department doesn’t have the backing of some hardcore smokers, the plans do indeed have the unanimous backing of the Louisville Metro Council Public Safety Committee and the full council will be meeting next Thursday to vote on the move.

What do you think?

Is this proposal to ban joke lighters a good decision or is it just another example of how wrapped up in cotton we are as a culture?  Let us know…

A baby at 75…

It’s never to late to try something new – but in Paul-Louis Mariasusay’s case 75 years old is apparently not too old to parent a child.

Paul-Louis from London was shocked and thrilled at the news that his new wife, Gena, was to bear his child.  The news came to the pensioner just months after marrying Gena, who is only 38 years old – almost half Paul-Louis’ age.

The child, named Xavier, isn’t the first for Paul-Louis who has already brought two other children into the world, not to mention his 5 grandchildren.  Infact one of his children is actually older than Gena.

Paul-Louis, who used to work as a BT engineer, is said to be thrilled at Xavier’s arrival who was born at a healthy 7lbs 11ozs.

Born in Malaysia, Paul-Louis has been living in England for over 30 years but actually found his new love on a trip he took back to the Far East to visit his family.

Excited at the chance to be a father again…

Speaking about the birth of his son and how he is dealing with being a father at such a mature age, Paul-Louis stated how much he appreciated the chance to be a father to a small baby once again.

“I may be a pensioner, and it is almost 40 years since I looked after a baby, but I haven’t forgotten how to change a nappy and it is just marvellous to be a father again.

“I know that Michael Douglas and Cary Grant both became fathers again when they were older - but I am older than both of them,” said Paul-Louie.

“The baby came as a complete surprise. I had no idea that I could still become a father at my age but Xavier is a lovely gift.

“We soon became good friends and then I asked her to come to this country for a holiday - and while she was here I proposed to her. She accepted and then she never went home.

“I get plenty of comments about Xavier when I’m pushing him in his pram from people who think I am his granddad. I am proud of Gena and Xavier and I want to walk with my head up high,” he continued.

Not everyone is happy about the birth.

However, Paul-Louis didn’t hide the fact that his family had been against the marriage to Gena and didn’t take the news too well when they found out that the couple were expecting little Xavier.

Still, Paul-Louis wants to keep his focus on being a good father and bringing Xavier into a good family home.

“I will do everything I can to be a good dad - educate and provide for him and my wife.

“I just want to spend as much time as possible with my son and don’t want to think about the future - everything is perfect so far.”

Paul-Louis, Gena and Xavier live in Acton and were married in February of last year.

How would you feel?

Would you feel comfortable taking your baby to pick up your pension or do you think it’s a bit unfair on the child?  Share your views!

Cricket isn’t English?

It seems that we have been wrong all these years – travelling around the country, bragging that we, the English, were the creators behind the charming game of cricket…but new academic research would seem to have proven us all wrong.  Belgium had the sport first…

According to a poem that has been discovered, that is said to have been written in 1533, suggests that the game actually originated from Flanders.

The news has taken the country unaware, striking shock into the hearts of the living rooms and streets of cricket lovers nationwide.

The poem, attributed to John Skelton, has claimed that Flemish weavers were called “kings of crekettes”.  The poem also gives mention to “wickettes”.

Skipping church for a quick game…

Paul Campbell, of the Australian National University, who has been declaring that the game was really a foreign import, made the discovery.

The original belief was that the game we know now as cricket evolved from an English children’s game and the first mention of the game being in England was found in the form of fines that were handed out when people skipped church to have a play.

Cricket was taken up by the majority of the country and then eventually found its way into public schools and then into both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Cricket isn’t even an English word.

Mr Campbell is quite sure that there is no chance that the game was created in England and has been backed up with Dr Heiner Gillmeister’s earlier research, which had already claimed that the word cricket couldn’t have come from the English language.

“‘There is no way to relate the term to any existing English word,’ he told the BBC,” said Campbell.

“I was brought up with Flemish children and I know the language well. I immediately thought of the Flemish phrase ‘met de krik ketsen’ which means to ‘chase a ball with a curved stick’.”

Meanwhile, upon hearing the news, cricket historian David Frith took the news quite well, saying, “It is hard to deny that this is a breakthrough. This discovery points to an addition to the great history of cricket.

“It’s exciting we haven’t yet written the final word on it.  It does make you wonder why Belgium isn’t playing Test cricket though, doesn’t it?” he continued.

Dr Gillmeister – golf isn’t even Scottish!

However, fans of Dr Heiner Gillmeister will be pleased to discover that his research didn’t come to a halt with cricket – he also pledged to discover the origins of golf.

Scots won’t be very happy to hear that as he is taking cricket away from England he is also quite happy to take golf away from Scotland.

Gillmeister is claiming that early records again indicate that the Belgians could have been found to play a similar game before the British.

What are we going to do?

How do you feel about the news?  Have you changed your views about cricket or do you think cricket is cricket…

It’s OK – the problem has been solved…

Everyone can relax – stop worrying, the wait is finally over…a scientist has uncovered the mystery of “belly button fluff”.

Georg Steinhauser, an Austrian chemist, has found a type of hair that actually holds pieces of lint that are floating around the belly button and then drags them into the navel.

This news didn’t come without a bit of sweat or tears as Dr Steinhauser spent his recent free time studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button over a three-year period.

And if you thought that the contents of the belly button fluff were simply bits of lint then I’m afraid that Dr Steinhauser has proven you wrong.  Inside the fluff apart from the lint you will find particles of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust.

And here’s the reason…

Writing in the journal, Medical Hypotheses, Dr Steinhauser claimed that the scaly structure of the hair promotes the “abrasion of minuscule fibres from the shirt” thus moving the lint into the belly button.

According to Dr Steinhauser’s study “small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day”.

“The hair’s scales act like a kind of barbed hooks.  Abdominal hair often seems to grow in concentric circles around the navel,” continued Dr Steinhauser.

“The question of the nature of navel fluff seems to concern more people than one would think at first glance.

“We hope we have been able to provide information for doctors when they are next confronted with the simple question of ‘why some belly buttons collect so much lint and others do not’.”

No stranger to the strange…

Dr Steinhauser is no stranger to weird and wacky studies – he has also looked at answering the question of why his wedding band erodes.

To add to the study, Dr Steinhauser explained a number of methods of ridding the body of the unproblematic fluff.  If you found the fluff to be an annoyance then you should think about shaving the hair or even getting a belly button piercing fitted.

However, Dr Steinhauser was quick to remind shavers that the problem would resurface as soon as the hairs grew back.

Another tip from the doctor is to wear old clothes as they tend to shed less amounts of lint compared with newer clothes.

When you think that a new item of clothing can lose up to a thousandth of its weight over the course of a year then perhaps this isn’t as much of a laughing matter as you might have originally thought…

Maybe more valuable than we thought?

Of course, there are always viable reasons for keeping hold of the belly button fluff and one man that will definitely not be shaving his belly button or fitting a piercing will be Graham Barker.

Mr Barker has been building up a collection of the fluff since 1984 in hopes that he might one day see a picture of himself in the Guinness Book of Records.

The most expensive bottles of Vimto in the world?

Police chiefs have waster almost a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers money by investigating the so-called theft of 5 bottles of Vimto by other police officers.

The bottles of Vimto in question were discovered by two transport officers, Rob Mitchell and Kris Catterall. They found the bottles of the popular cordial inside an abandoned cardboard box next to a rail line.

However, they stepped out of line according to police rules as they should have brought the box in to the station where it should have been reported lost or stolen.

Unfortunately for the officers and the taxpayer, Mitchell and Catterall couldn’t contain their excitement and had to share the bottles as equally as possible between each other and other colleagues.

18 month suspension and an internal probe…

These actions led to the officers being suspended for 18 months until the ridiculous case against them was dropped.

However the officers had to wait for 8 months until lawyers decided upon a charge, being a fine of four wages each for the officers who were forced to plead guilty to neglecting their duties – a sum of £400 each.

Mitchell and Catterall still face an internal probe over the situation.

A waste of taxpayer’s money…

Still, the biggest upset over the whole issue has to be the fact that the investigation has cost the taxpayer around £200,000 and has been blasted as a gross misuse of money.

Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers’ Alliance has spoken out about the situation, which he says could have been resolved without wasting so much time or money.

“This is an absurd and shocking waste of taxpayers’ money and utter incompetence on behalf of the senior officers involved.

“If disciplinary action needed to be taken it should have been done quickly and without wasting money. The police chiefs who oversaw this episode should be held accountable to taxpayers,” said Elliott.

Unnecessary stress on the officers!

Meanwhile, the officers in question will be feeling the stress involved with such a remarkably weird investigation as well as the approaching internal probe looming over their heads.

The chairman of the British Transport Police Federation, Alex Robertson, who is representing both officers involved in the Vimto issue, claimed that the whole situation was a huge upset for both the officers.

“To be suspended for so long over something so trivial will have put the officers and their families under great stress.”

Were they wrong?

However, in retaliation the British Transport Police have claimed that the officers they employ must remain devoted to the laws of the land if they expect to continue at their jobs successfully.

“The integrity of officers is paramount in maintaining public confidence and any failure to uphold our high standards will always be treated seriously,” claimed a spokeswoman for the British Transport Police.

How about you?

What do you think about the whole Vimto fiasco?  Do you see it as a complete waste of your money or are you on the side of the Transport Police who claim that their officers must remain observant of the laws of the land, even in the smallest of cases?