Blind (accurate) Commentator

 A blind cricket commentator in Zimbabwe manages to judge the power and direction of a shot – and rarely makes mistakes
When the ball hits the bat, the radio announcer exclaims that it's sailing far. Dean Du Plessis' acute sense of hearing and his eavesdropping on other commentators helps him overcome the fact that he is blind, producing a delivery so polished that most listeners are unaware that he can't see.

Mr Du Plessis hears the power and direction of the hit. He listens to the speed and spin of the ball, along with the players' exertions and their cries of elation or frustration. He senses the excitement – or otherwise – of the play on the cricket field and collates the scores with a computer-like memory.
In the media area at Harare's Country Club sports field, other journalists see the ball soar skyward after a sharp crack on the bat.
"That's a big one. It's gone for six," said the 33-year-old Mr Du Plessis, his opaque eyes gazing into the distance. It has, flying way out of the field.
Team members and spectators murmur applause as the often sedate game of cricket goes on. In a fast-moving sport like football, Mr De Plessis' feat would likely be impossible. He asks a friend to confirm the score on the board and feeds the latest to state radio.

PlanetSolar

World's biggest solar powered boat sets sail. This sleek catamaran-styled yacht, named the PlanetSolar, measures 102 feet long, almost 50 feet wide and 24-1/2 feet high (31 meters by 15 meters by 7.5 meters), but its most interesting feature is that it’s covered with 5,382 sq ft (500 sq m) of solar panels that gather sunlight and help it sail the sea nice and smooth.
Built by Knierim Yachtbau and designed by PlanetSolar SA of Switzerland, the world’s largest solar boat has a futuristic shape that gets the eye. The vessel has been unveiled for the first time during a press event held at the HDW shipyard in Kiel.

A council in Britain has banned its staff from cracking mother-in-law jokes. Such humor is no longer acceptable, according to officials at the London Borough of Barnet. Daily Telegraph reported Monday that the order was issued in a 12-page booklet called "Cultural awareness: General Problems". "Humor can be incredibly culture-specific, and is very open to misinterpretation or even offense by other cultures. And don't forget when you don't know what people are laughing at, it is very easy to imagine that they are laughing at you.

After rescuing stranded people in mountains and hilly terrain and guiding the blind, dogs are now being used in German schools to boost performance in the classroom. Despite a grainy, gray September morning, the mood is upbeat in a class in Karlsruhe in Germany: and that's largely because Paula, a six year-old Golden Retriever, is here. Some parents were skeptical at the start, said teacher Bettina Brecht who has been bringing her dog to the classroom the past five years. Dogs are being brought into schools since the end of the 1990s and there are about 120 institutions welcoming canines.

Revenge Of The Garbage

Bin-men took their revenge on a driver who had blocked their way by stacking dozens of empty bins round the car.The incident was caught on camera and the footage is now a Youtube Hit.

The 62-second clip shows three men, each of them wearing a high-visibility jacket, dragging bins into the alleyway beside Stephenson Street, Horwich, near Bolton, Greater Manchester.

An accompanying narrative reads: “This shows Horwich Bin Men getting their own back on a car owner who has obstructed a back alley with their car.
“The bin men usually drive their van through this back alley to the next street and they are a bit annoyed they have to drive round via Chorley New Road, which is very busy.”
One local refuse collector claimed to be unaware of the incident but said: “These things do go on, but it is just a big of harmless fun.
“It can be frustrating when cars block the wagons, but the lads will have made sure they didn’t damage the vehicle in question”.
Officials at Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council believe the footage is at least four years old. They said they took such incidents “very seriously”.

Suspended Animation

Chinese artist Li Wei creates images of himself and his friends being thrown off buildings, dangling from bridges and hanging off cars, all in the name of art. Li's photos can take up to six months to set up and involve huge crews organizing props such as smoke, mirrors, wires and cranes. After the photographs are taken the father of one removes traces of the wires with a computer. Li, from Beijing, said: "One of the most difficult and expensive shots was where myself and 12 people were flying behind a car and we had to use a lot of cranes to keep us all suspended" "The images can involve me getting battered around a bit - most times I will pick up an injury from the stunt wires, one time I got my head stuck in a pane of smashed glass"
One of Li Wei's images is shown and it was taken with the help of cranes holding the people in position. 

Cinematic Compensation

A Chinese woman is suing a cinema and a film's distributors for wasting her time by showing 20 minutes of adverts before it started, according to state media.

Chen Xiaomei claims the Polybona International Cinema in the northern city of Xian and film distributors Huayi Brothers Media Corporation should have told her how long the advertisements for the film Aftershock lasted, Xinhua news agency said.

Ms Chen, who is a lawyer, has accused Polybona and Huayi Brothers of wasting her time and violating her freedom of choice.
The case has been accepted by the People's Court in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, Xinhua said, citing a statement from the court.
Ms Chen is demanding the companies refund her 35-yuan ticket (£3.30), pay her 35 yuan in compensation and one yuan (10p) for emotional damages and write her an apology, the report said.
She has also advised the cinema to publish the advertisement times on its website, in the lobby or on its customer hotline and asked Huayi Brothers to cut the length of commercials to less than five minutes.

Candid Bomb

An Iraqi prank television show has taken the 'candid camera' format to a new level after planting fake bombs under celebrities' cars.The programme, “Put Him In Bucca”, also threatens high-profile contests with jail in a maximum-security prison despite their protests of innocence.
The show, broadcast on the Al-Baghdadia Network , targets famous Iraqi singers, comedians and artists. 
It is named after the US military’s Camp Bucca high security prison that held thousands of Iraqi detainees before being closed in 2009.
Participants are invited to the station’s studios for an interview but as they arrive are subjected to a checkpoint complete actors posing as police and security personnel.
As they wait outside the building a fake improvised explosive device (IED) is then planted in the car before they are accused of being suicide bombers and threatened with prison.
But the programme has attracted criticism as being in bad taste, in a country where suicide bombings remain frequent.
The show has continued to be broadcast throughout the fasting month of Ramadan despite numerous protests being held objecting to its making fun of a serious issue.
Despite celebrities later giving permission for the show to air, some appeared to be have been shocked by the experience.
"I expected it to be a candid camera show but didn't expect all the army facilities and this level of acting," said actress Asia Kamal, who was targeted by the pranksters.

Sandwich Misslies

Lawyers, reporters and visitors have been banned from taking sandwiches into a court building to prevent them being used as missiles.Bottles of water and crisps are also prohibited at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court, in England, because they pose a "health and safety hazard." 

Visitors to all courts around the country are searched by security staff for knives and weapons as they enter. 
But staff at the court in High Wycombe have also been told to seize packed lunches.
Grieving families attending inquests into the deaths of loved ones were even told they could not bring in bottled water.
An official at the court said: "The concern is that people are going to use their food as a missile and fling it down the stairs at people.
"Apparently there have been incidents of lunches being thrown around in the past - so we have had to introduce these rules for everyone regardless of who they are or why they are here."

Ghostly Reality

A man searching for a legendary “ghost train” was killed when a real locomotive came down the tracks and hit him.Christopher Kaiser, 29, had gathered with around 12 others on the anniversary of a crash that happened near Statesville, North Carolina at 3am on Aug 27, 1891.
The crash 119 years ago saw seven carriages fall off a rail bridge into a ravine and 30 people died. 

According to local legend the sounds of the accident, including the whistle of the train and the screams of passengers, can be heard again on the anniversary and each year people go to listen. On the centenary of the crash in 1991 more than 150 people turned up.
Mr Kaiser was waiting on a trestle at 2.45am when the real train, which consisted of three locomotives, came round a bend.
The ghost hunters began running back along the trestle and most of them made it the 150ft to safety.
According to witnesses Mr Kaiser pushed a woman with him to safety.
She fell at least 30ft from the trestle and was being treated for injuries. Another person was also injured.
A police spokesman said: “During the investigation, witnesses told deputies they were at the site in hopes of seeing a 'ghost train.’ “Twelve people, who were amateur ghost hunters, were caught on the trestle when the train rounded the bend. All indications at this point are this is an accident.”

Dangerous Spider

A man suffered flash burns after he accidentally blew himself up trying to kill a spider.

The 28 year-old suffered severe burns after attacking the arachnid with an aerosol can at his home in Clacton in Essex.

The man was summoned by his wife to deal with a spider she had seen scuttling behind the lavatory on Monday. Not being able to reach it, the man decided to kill it by spraying it with the can. 
However he was unable to see whether it was dead because the bulb in the bathroom light had blown. At this point he turned to a cigarette lighter to illuminate the room, but in the process ignited the gas fumes and caused an explosion.
The blast was so strong it blew the man off his feet and lifted the loft door off its hinges.
He suffered flash burns to his head, legs and torso and was rushed by ambulance to hospital after dousing himself in cold water.

Fat Solution

The Japan Sumo Association is distributing about 60 iPads among all the 51 training stables and top association officials from this week to help improve communication.

"It seems rather easy to use," association chief Hanaregoma. "Sending emails was very easy." 

The 62-year-old former wrestler admitted that while he can read incoming text messages on his mobile phone, he does not know how to write replies and does not usually use a computer.
But "time flies if you play with this", he said of the Apple gadget.
The iPad was chosen because the sumo association believed the device was big enough to cater to wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones, according to reports.
Sumo officials decided to go digital and buy iPads as the ancient sport attempts to mend its ways after scandals over wrestlers' ties with gangsters and illegal gambling, match-fixing and brutal hazing of apprentices.
The sport's authorities faced loud public criticism for their clumsy efforts to investigate the scandals, in part due to insufficient sharing of information among sumo leaders.
With a reliance on faxes and phone calls, the sumo association has occasionally failed to distribute urgent messages to its officers and stable masters.
"If we place this (iPad) in all the stables, we should be able to contact them anytime," the association's spokesman Nishonoseki has said.

Dancing digger

What started as a trick at a school fete has turned into a festival favourite for farmer Wilf Bown and his dancing JCB digger, as he manoeouvres it at gravity-defying angles to a soaring rock n'roll soundtrack.

"I've driven tractors and diggers for some 40 years and at the weekends I do this for a hobby because I enjoy going to shows, talking to lots of different people and giving people pleasure."

It all started about twenty years ago when Wilf took his JCB along to a summer fete at the school attended by his three young children.
"I pinned a balloon to the floor and the kids tried to burst it using the back bucket" he said.
"Then I tipped it over a bit and lifted it up a bit and they all loved it". A few local shows followed but then in 2004 Wilf was invited to the popular Elvaston Steam Rally in Derby.

Unlucky 13

Friday the 13th is often thought of as an unlucky day - and it lived up to its reputation for one youngster. 

At precisely 13:13, a boy aged 13 was seen by the St John Ambulance team at Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival in Suffolk, England, after he was struck by lightning, a spokesman said.

The boy suffered a minor burn and was taken to James Paget Hospital, where he is expected to make a full recovery.
Jason Gillingham, county ambulance officer and on scene at the show, said: ''This was a very minor burn to the boy's shoulder, but he was conveyed to hospital and is recovering well."
A second teenager and a woman were also struck by lightning but did not need hospital treatment.

 

The Bible, Sumarized

A devout Christian has pledged to spread the word of the Lord - by telling every chapter of the Bible on Twitter.Chris Juby, 30, plans to condense one chapter a day into less than 140 characters - the maximum allowed for a single entry on the website. 

Mr Juby, director of worship at King's Church, Durham City, began with the first chapter of Genesis on Sunday and intends to work his way through all 1,189 chapters. 
His task of truly Biblical proportions will take more than three years to complete, with the last entry due on November 8, 2013. He is working on the twitter account biblesummary
His first entry on Twitter read: "God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth."
Mr Juby said: "It is my normal habit to read a chapter of the Bible each morning and I always read through from Genesis to Revelation.
"As I was coming to the end last time, I thought I needed a way of focussing my mind a little bit more on what I was reading. I thought a summary would be a good way of doing this. I already use Twitter, so I thought I'd share my summaries."
Mr Juby's Twitter Bible follows the publication of versions such as the 100 minute Bible, the SMS text message Bible and the Geordie Bible.

Garden of Poison Arrows

A tropical hallucinogenic plant used to make poisonous Amazonian arrowheads has been found in an English garden. 
Sharon Nowell, 36, thought the green shoots appearing in her parents' garden were the beginnings of a marrow or possibly a common weed at first.

But after a bit of research she soon discovered that the plant – which has grown by four feet in a month – was something far more exotic.
Internet searches showed that the plant was actually a rare datura stramonium – commonly known as the Devil's Trumpet for its distinctive horn-shaped flowers.
The green plant, which resembles a large rhubarb, is more commonly found in hotter climates and has been used by American Indians for centuries in traditional ceremonies.
Despite being highly toxic and potentially lethal if ingested, the seeds in the plant's pods are often used as a mind-bending drug sold as jimson weed on-line for as little as £6.
Experts believe its appearance in the garden in Coventry, West Midlands, originated from the droppings of migrating birds flying from the Atlantic.

 

Wine from Water

Divers have found bottles of champagne some 230 years old on the bottom of the Baltic which a wine expert described on Saturday as tasting “fabulous”.

Thought to be premium brand Veuve Clicquot, the 30 bottles discovered perfectly preserved at a depth of 180 feet could have been in a consignment sent by France’s King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court.

If confirmed, it would be by far the oldest champagne still drinkable in the world, thanks to the ideal conditions of cold and darkness. “We have contacted (makers) Moet & Chandon and they are 98 per cent certain it is Veuve Clicquot,” Christian Ekstroem, the head of the div

ing team, told AFP. "There is an anchor on the cork and they told me they are the only ones to have used this sign," he added.

The group of seven Swedish divers made their find on July 6 off the Finnish Aaland island, mid-way between Sweden and Finland, near the remains of a sailing vessel.

"Visibility was very bad, hardly a metre," Ekstroem said. "We couldn't find the name of the ship, or the bell, so I brought a bottle up to try to date it." The hand-made bottle bore no label, while the cork was marked Juclar, from its origin in Andorra.

According to records, Veuve Clicquot was first produced in 1772, but the first bottles were laid down for ten years. "So it can't be before 1782, and it can't be after 1788-89, when the French Revolution disrupted production," Ekstroem said.

The 230-year-old bottles of Veuve Clicquot (seen here in modern form) could fetch an auction price of "several million" dollars if proven to be King Louis XVI's wine.

Dog Gone Madness

A New Zealand man is recovering from surgery after being shot in the buttock by his dog.
Police believe the animal stood on the trigger of a .22 bolt-action rifle (pictured) in a freak accident.The dog's 40-year-old owner was getting into the rear seat of a four-wheel drive vehicle with the rifle next to him when the animal jumped in.
He was among a group of four people who had slaughtered a pig at Te Kopuru, 90 miles northwest of Auckland on New Zealand's North Island.
The group told police they had thought the gun, which in fact contained five shells, was unloaded.
Mark Going, a St John Ambulance manager, said paramedics who attended were told the rifle had been fired through the seat, lodging a bullet in the man's left buttock.
The victim, who was in extreme pain, was airlifted by rescue helicopter to Whangarei Hospital where surgeons removed the bullet.
He was in a stable condition in hospital on Tuesday.
The owner has not been named, neither has the breed of dog.
Senior Constable Ian Anderson, of nearby Dargaville, said the victim was lucky not to have been more seriously hurt.

Swallowing Money

A budget-conscious council in Austria has requested that swimmers stop swallowing water in a bid to save money.  
According to a survey carried out by managers at Vienna's 18 public swimming pools bathers are drinking 5,000 litres of chlorinated pool water a day.

Official Martin Kotinsky said: "A lot of water gets taken out in the material every time a swimmer uses the pool and it has to be replaced."

He pointed out that, as well as replacing water, authorities had to spend £20 on chlorine - £1.11 per pool.
The council is also targeting people who wear Bermuda shorts to go bathing.
Tests revealed that the average wearer takes 2.5 litres of water with them trapped in their swimwear every time they get out of the pool.
Mr Kotinsky said: "A lot of water gets taken out in the material every time a swimmer climbs in and out. That means that for every 1,000 visits to the pool we lose 2,500 litres of water."
Complaints about shrinking pools come amid heatwave in Austria that has boosted the number of swimmers.

Irish Penguin

A penguin was found waddling the streets of Dublin after a gang of pranksters stole her from the city's zoo.
Ten-year-old Kelli was said to be distressed by her kidnap ordeal after three men climbed perimeter fences and snatched her from her mate Mick. Furious zookeepers condemned those responsible, saying that the delicate birds could have died from the trauma. 
Eddie O'Brien, team leader in the zoo's east section, said the penguin was obviously traumatized when rescued but quickly settled back into her routine.
"These birds get stressed very easily when taken out of their environment. They don't react well to and it and it could have caused a heart attack," he said.
Gardai said three men broke into the Phoenix Park zoo at about 8am on Thursday and climbed into the enclosure.
The thieves snatched the Humboldt – native to parts of South America, including Chile – stuffed it in a sports bag, hailed a taxi outside the zoo and fled.
Gardai believe they told the taxi driver they had a rabbit in the holdall.

The Nutty Professors

Over a dozen monkeys used tree branches to escape from a Japanese laboratory surrounded with a 17 ft high electric fence, only to be lured back in by scientists armed with peanuts. The 15 monkeys escaped from Kyoto University’s primate research institute in Aichi Prefecture.
After escaping, the monkeys seemed unsure about what to do next. They sat by the gates of the research centre and were lured back by scientists carrying peanuts.
“It was an incredible escape and the first time something like this has ever happened,” Daily Telegraph quoted Hirohisa Hirai, deputy head of the institute, as saying.

Hot Relaxation

A "motivation day" organized by one of Italy's biggest real estate agencies has ended in tears and injuries when nine staff had to be treated in hospital after walking barefoot on a bed of hot coals. Alessandro Di Priamo, a motivational trainer for companies, said that the nine salespeople from the Tecnocasa agency had suffered light burns and none were seriously hurt. Doctors said the injuries could take up to 10 days to heal.
"Fire walking helps people overcome their fears, seek new challenges and understand that most of what they see as their limits are self-inflicted," Mr Di Priamo said. He said the hotel near Rome where the exercise was held used the wrong kind of wood and some artificial coal without him knowing. "I have done this job for 12 years with thousands of people and never had a problem. I myself walked first on that bed of burning coals and didn't feel anything - in fact that same evening I went for a 16 km run," he said.

Serafino Bisirri, the manager of the Villa Icidia hotel, denied responsibility for the incident. "If the wood wasn't the right sort, whose responsibility was that? Mr Di Priamo was the conductor of this particular orchestra. I mean, it's not as if I go walking on burning coals," he told the Guardian.

Hairy Treat

A jam made from Princess Diana's hair was sold out within days for about $7 a pot. Makers Bompas and Parr created the preserve for a surrealist exhibition at London's Barbican Exibition. The controversial conserve uses a speck of her hair purchased from a US dealer on eBay, the Daily Express reported on its website on Sunday. The jam could soon hit supermarket shelves after top retailers showed an interest in stocking it. Sam Bompas, who founded the catering company with school friend Henry Parr three years ago, said: "The milk jam takes a speck of Princess Diana's hair and infuses it in gin before it is turned into jam"

The Eyeborg

Rob Spence, a Toronto-based film-maker, lost his right eye in a shooting accident on his grandfather's farm when he was a teenager. Now 36, he decided some years ago to build a miniature camera that could be fitted inside his false eye. A prototype was completed last year, and was named by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2009. He calls himself "the Eyeborg guy".

The eye contains a wireless video camera that runs on a tiny three-volt battery. It is not connected to his brain, and has not restored his vision. Instead it records everything that he sees. More than that, it contains a wireless transmitter, which allows him to transmit what he is seeing in real time to a computer.
The current model is low resolution, and the transmitter is weak, meaning that Mr Spence has to hold a receiving antenna to his cheek to get a full signal. But a new higher-resolution model, complete with stronger transmitter and a booster on the receiver, is being built. He says: "Unlike you humans, I can continue to upgrade." Mr Spence also has a version with a red LED light in the eye, like the robot from the Terminator films.
The eye was built with the help of Steve Mann, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an expert in "cyborg" technology - the blending of natural and artificial systems with technology.

Arrested Croc

German police were called to make an unusual arrest, seizing a crocodile peacefully going about its business on the streets of the small town of Gross-Rohrheim.Police received a call at around 2am from a worried resident swearing there was a crocodile in the street. Initially suspicious of a hoax, police who went to investigate were surprised to find that the reports were accurate.
"It is true that the officers were not especially well trained to catch crocodiles, but they were gutsy," police said in a statement.
"With a great deal of finesse – according to the officers' report – they managed to outsmart the reptile, temporarily bind up its jaws and take it into police custody," added the statement.
Suspicion quickly fell on a small circus that was visiting the town at the time. Police took the offending crocodile back to the circus and its grateful owners

Unique Exemption

The Terrafugia Transition, a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile, is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Aviation Administration. 
he Transition was designed as a "light sport" aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. But the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features - airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance - that are required for road vehicles of that weight. Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption - allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over the limit.
Light sport aircraft licences require just 20 hours' flying time, making them much easier to obtain than full private licences.
The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30 miles per gallon. Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot - an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land - it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propellor, and take off. The folding wings are electrically powered.
Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot (one-third of a mile) runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage.
Terrafugia says that one of the major advantages of the Transition over ordinary light aircraft is safety - in the event of inclement weather, it can simply drive home instead of either being grounded or flying in unsafe conditions.
The company says that 70 people have ordered the car, leaving a $10,000 (£6,650) deposit each. The car is expected to retail at $194,000 (£129,000). Deposits are held in escrow, meaning that should the company go bankrupt before delivery, the money will be refunded.

Vuvuleza Videos

YouTube has capitalized on the World Cup vuvuzela craze by installing a button which plays the distinctive buzzing soundtrack over its clips. 
The button appears in the shape of a football on the bottom right hand corner below the screen. It allows fans of the controversial African plastic trumpet to overlay its sound on film clips of political events, animal capers and music videos, often to hilarious effect.

Among popular clips on the website which feature the new button is one of Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech on being voted into 10 Downing Street, and a USA vs England Lego match. A fist fight in the Nigerian parliament following the suspension of 11 legislators takes on an entirely new flavor thanks to the button, as do the antics of a group of baby panda bears on a slide and the sight of a giant spider crab shedding its shell. But the film clip to which the vuvuzela is best suited has to be US President Barack Obama’s duel to the death with a fly during a broadcast interview.
However, many technology blogs have reacted with despair to the website’s popularist move, which virtually drowns out the clips’ original soundtracks.
"YouTube always has had a way with pranks," Tech Crunch's Jason Kincaid wrote. "Clicking it will activate an endless, incredibly annoying sound that sounds vaguely like a swarm of insects."
"As if we haven’t been hearing the buzzing sound of vuvuzelas enough in the last couple of days, " Stan Schroeder said on social media blog.
"If you haven’t been following the football World Cup and you’re not familiar with the term, vuvuzela is a plastic horn that produces a loud monotone which starts getting on your nerves in about five seconds.”

King Coin

A Spanish precious metals trading company bought the world's largest gold coin for 3.27 million euros, its exact material worth, from the estate of an insolvent investment firm at a rare auction in Vienna on Friday.

The 100 kg (220.5 lb) piece, one of only five Canadian $1,000,000 Maple Leaf coins the Royal Canadian Mint has ever produced, was snapped up immediately in a written bid from ORO direct, a gold trading company based in Madrid.

The auction was ordered by the administrator of Austrian investment group AvW Invest, which filed for insolvency in May after its owner and chief executive was arrested on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and other charges.
AvW had acquired the coin in 2007, joining an exclusive club of owners including Queen Elizabeth, who is also displayed on one side of the coin, two unidentified investors in Dubai and one who is so reclusive even his or her residence is unknown.
AvW had lent its coin, 53 cm (21 inches) in diameter and 3 cm thick, to Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum where it had been on display as part of its coin collection.
Its purity is 99.999 percent, the purest type in the market.
bi The Royal Canadian Mint launched the coin in 2007 to showcase its production facilities and steal the entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's biggest gold coin.

Early to bed and early to rise

The Japanese government has launched a campaign encouraging people to go to bed and get up early. The Morning Challenge campaign, unveiled by the Environment Ministry, is based on the premise that swapping late night electricity for an extra hour of morning sunlight could significantly cut the nation's carbon footprint. A typical family can reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 85kg a year if everyone goes to bed and gets up one hour earlier. It is the latest initiative tackling climate change to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels within the next decade.

English Supporter

African Grey parrot, Benji, is a parrot that squawks "Come on Rooney" everytime the striker plays

Benji's owners Stephen Borrill, 46, and wife Ruth, 47, have decked out their house in full World Cup regalia and say their patriotic pet is a huge England fan.

"Benji loves cheering on the football. He is a right chatterbox," Mr Borrill said.
"He picks up most of his expressions from Ruth," he added.
Mrs Borrill spent a month teaching Benji the names of the England players for World Cup 2010 to stop him getting confused with the 2006 World Cup squad.
"He'll be watching the game on Friday and supporting the team along with us," she said.
"When he gets over-excited about the game he gets his catchphrases all muddled up, which is so funny."

Solar Music

The sun has been the inspiration for hundreds of songs, but now scientists have discovered that the star at the center of our solar system produces its own music.
Astronomers at the University of Sheffield have managed to record for the first time the eerie musical harmonies produced by the magnetic field in the outer atmosphere of the sun.
They found that huge magnetic loops that have been observed coiling away from the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere, known as coronal loops, vibrate like strings on a musical instrument.
Using satellite images of these loops, which can be over 60,000 miles long, the scientists were able to recreate the sound by turning the visible vibrations into noises and speeding up the frequency so it is audible to the human ear.
Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen, head of the solar physics research group at Sheffield University, said: "It was strangely beautiful and exciting to hear these noises for the first time from such a large and powerful source... It is a sort of music as it has harmonics." "It is providing us with a new way of learning about the sun and giving us a new insight into the physics that goes on at in the sun's outer layers where temperatures reach millions of degrees," he added. The coronal loops are thought to be involved in the production of solar flares that fling highly charged particles out into space, creating a phenomenon known as space weather.

Balloons Of Korea

Amid growing military tensions between North Korea and South Korea, Seoul mobilised troops and police early on Thursday after a resident of Ansan, 22 miles south-west of the South Korean capital, reported that 40 to 50 flying objects resembling parachutes had fallen on a mountain the previous night. Upon inspection, the objects were identified as helium balloons released by children at a nearby school.
Tensions on the Korean peninsular have been high since the sinking of the South Korea's warship earlier this year. Seoul has said that the ship was torpedoed by North Korean vessels
Earlier this month, an explosion Yeonpyeong Island, near the sea border with North Korea, along with the discovery of a diving suit on the island's shoreline, also sparked an alert.
A joint military and police investigation found that the diving suit was abandoned by a fisherman and the explosion was not suspicious.

Cat Lover (of sorts)

Dogs love nothing more than to chew slippers,boots and bones but one tiny terrier managed to scoff an entire family of toy cats.Little Snowy,a one-year-old white West Highland terrier,weighs just 3.6kg (8lb) but still found room for the five ornaments.

The vet initially thought it was a joke when X-rays clearly revealed a cat peering out of the dogs belly.

We were all stunned.I have been a vet for 10 years and never saw an Xray like this, said Nigel Belgrove.Weve had dogs that have swallowed golf balls and batteries before but Snowy beats them all,hands down, he added.

The terrier began to worry her owner Samantha Reed,42,when she suddenly lost her appetite and started vomiting several times a day.Initially,it was thought Snowy reacted badly to dog food and the vet recommended a diet of rice and chicken.She remained ill so they took urine samples to test for a kidney problem and tried a course of antibiotics.
It was only when they took the Xray that the feline face emerged.The cats were removed last week in a onehour operation and Snowy is now recovering well.

Taiwan Tragedy

Taiwan's navy has appealed for help from local fisherman, offering a cash reward to anyone who finds a torpedo its sailors lost during a drill last week. The offer follows four days of futile searching in the area around the Tsoying base in southern Taiwan, the navy said in a statement on Tuesday.

Any fisherman who snares the German-built SUT torpedo will scoop 30,000 Taiwan dollars (£630).It is the second time submariners aboard the Dutch-made Hai Long, or "Sea Dragon" have lost a torpedo. In 2003 the missing weapon was washed ashore.

Taiwan relies heavily on foreign countries for its weapons, and Beijing annually condemns US sales of missiles and helicopters to Taipei. Under a 1979 Act of Congress, Washington is legally obliged to help Taiwan defend itself.

Taiwan has been ruled by its own government since the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China in 1949. Taipei says it needs the latest US military technology to counter the threat posed by the estimated 1000-1500 missiles aimed at the island by China.

Prominent Delay

The aging Frank Dryman, a notorious killer from Montana's past, had hidden in plain sight for so long that he forgot he was a wanted man.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, Dryman detailed how he invented a whole new life, with a new family, an Arizona wedding chapel business — and even volunteer work for local civic clubs.
"They just forgot about me," said Dryman, in his first interview since being caught and sent back to the prison he last left in the 1960s. "I was a prominent member of the community."
That is, until the grandson of the man he shot six times in the back came looking.
Dryman had been one step ahead of the law since 1951 when he avoided the hangman's noose, a relic of frontier justice still in use at the time.Less than 20 years later he was out on parole. Not content with that good fortune, he skipped out and evaded authorities for four decades. After a while he even forgot about hiding and signed up for V.A. benefits from his days in the Navy in 1948.
Now the 79-year-old Dryman is back behind bars, likely for what remains of his life. He was caught only after his long-ago victim's grandson got curious and started poking around.

Crushing Fall

In a truly bizarre turn of events, a Hong Kong-based widow from the Ma On Shan district ended up killing a passing pedestrian when she lost her footing and fell from outside her high-rise flat. The elderly and considerably larger woman, Lam, was picking up her washing when she slipped and plunged down from the 27th floor and landed on Chan Kwai-mui, a 51 year old cleaner, who was on her way from work. Kwai-mui was crushed to death under the weight of Lam.

It was a security guard who discovered the aftermath at the bottom of the block where both women were “in a heap”.

The Farm And The Furious

A Chinese farmer is fighting off property developers who want his land, firing rockets from a homemade cannon made out of a wheelbarrow and pipes, state media said on Tuesday. 

Yang Youde, who lives on the outskirts of the bustling city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, said he had fended off two eviction attempts with his improvised weapon, which uses ammunition made from locally sold fireworks. 

"I shot only over their heads to frighten them," he told the China Daily of his attacks on demolition workers sent to move him off his land. "I didn't want to cause any injuries."The rockets, which can travel over 100 yards, exploded with a deafening bang, the official paper added. It did not say if anyone had been injured.

His approach is more aggressive than most, but Mr Yang's problem is a common one.

Anger over property confiscation is one of the leading causes of unrest in China, with many people forced to give up homes and land to make way for anything from roads to luxury villas.

Mr Yang said the local government had offered him 130,000 yuan (£13,000) for his fields, on which they want to erect "department buildings". He said the land is worth five times that amount.

Construction ditches have already been dug across the land of less obstinate neighbors.

A first eviction team attacked Mr Yang in February after his rockets ran out, but local police came to his rescue. In May he held off 100 people by firing from a makeshift watchtower.
The government is planning to reform property confiscation rules, but rights groups say the changes do not go far enough to address the potentially destabilizing issue.

Palmtree Save

A four-year-old boy had a lucky escape after falling from a 17th floor hotel balcony only to bounce off palm trees and land with minor injuries. Rescuers found Joey Williams still alive after he bounced off a cluster of palm trees and landed on a dirt surface near the hotel's swimming pool.

Less than four hours after the fall at his hotel in Miami, Florida, he was sitting up in bed eating chips and drinking.

Lt Ignatius Carroll, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue, said it was amazing the boy was still alive. "I've seen people die after falling 30 feet, but this boy fell up to 80ft," he said. "He looked to be in pretty good shape. He wasn't all banged up like we expected."
Joey was with his parents and grandparents at the Doubletree hotel in Miami when the incident occurred on Saturday.
His grandfather Jerry Unawich said the youngster had been chasing a balloon in the hotel room. When the balloon drifted out on the balcony his grandson chased after it and is believed to have climbed over the railing surrounding the balcony.
Williams landed by the hotel's pool on the 10th floor of the building in Miami, Florida.
"There are no broken bones and doctors told us everything is fine," said Unawich.

Missed Map

An American woman, Lauren Rosenberg, is suing Google, the search engine giant, because she was hit by a car after following its "safe" online mapping service. Rosenberg, is claiming damages from Google because she was injured while taking a "safe" route recommended by it.
According to her claim filed, she sustained injuries and "emotional suffering" from the accident, which occurred after she following directions on her BlackBerry. According to her lawsuit, Google Maps had led her to a highway without sidewalks that was "not reasonably safe for pedestrians".

Towed for Security

A driver was forced to pay £150 to get his car back after police confiscated it because he left a window open. Marcus Morris was told that police they had taken his VW Polo because the open window - which he had accidentally left down - meant the vehicle was at risk of theft.

Mr Morris, 25, had parked the car near to Leeds city centre as he went for a job interview but returned an hour-and-a-half later to find it had gone. He contacted West Yorkshire Police believing it had been stolen but was told they had removed it to protect it from thieves.

Mr Morris, said: "I couldn't believe it. It seems outrageous. So what if I had left my window open? If anything had been taken then it'd have been my own fault." Police told him a window had been left open and a CD wallet was in the back of the car. The vehicle had been taken to a storage facility.

When Mr Morris collected his car the next morning he was handed a bill for £150. "I'm not working at the moment and that's a lot of money for me. It's money I don't think I should have had to pay," he said.

West Yorkshire Police said it made no apology for taking action. Chief Insp Elizabeth Belton said: "Officers regularly patrol our communities looking for opportunities to prevent crime, which is exactly what has happened on this occasion. The vehicle was left insecure with valuables on show in an area with significant levels of car crime and we were unable to locate the owner. We make absolutely no apology whatsoever for the officer's actions, which have prevented this vehicle becoming a target for thieves. Had a thief got there first it would have been a very different story. We need people to take responsibility for their own property and take any valuables with them when they park up. We hope Mr Morris's story will serve as a reminder."

The charges made for the recovery and storage of vehicles are set nationally by the Government. Mr Morris confirmed he is taking legal advice in an attempt to recover the cost.

Electronic Lockdown

India's President Pratibha Patil's trip to China faced a breach in protocol when her flight was delayed as one of the parliamentarians accompanying her arrived late to the airport. Mr.Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that he was delayed because he could not understand how to use the electronic key to the executive hotel room he was staying in.

"I was not informed about what time I had to board the plane and I couldn't handle the electronic key to the lift and the room," the former rural development minister said.Official sources said Singh, along with the president and the official delegation, were staying at the super-deluxe Raffles Beijing Hotel where access to restricted VIP floors was through an electronic key that the minister found difficult to handle. 

President Patil was to take the flight at 9 a.m. but was delayed by 20 minutes. Since the special Chinese flight could not take off on time, other flights at the busy Beijing airport also got delayed, officials said.

Ambulance for the Obese

Britain’s first specially adapted ambulance for carrying obese patients hit the road a few days back and is capable of transporting people weighing more than 400 kg.

South Central Ambulance Service built the vehicle specifically to tackle the demands of a sharp rise in call-outs to overweight patients. Its cavernous interior is more akin to a hospital ward than the back of an ambulance, with room enough for four beds and is fitted with all the latest life-saving equipment.

While a standard ambulance can only carry a person weighing up to 120 kg, the adapted mini-truck can carry patients as heavy as 250kg stone including their trolley. The vehicle can take a single person weighing up to 420 kg as well as the ambulance's two dedicated members of support staff.
Its most significant modification is a heavy-duty tail lift which can be lowered to the ground allowing even the heaviest patients to be raised into the ambulance at the push of a button.
James Keating-Wilkes, a spokesman for the trust, said it had resolved to create the ambulance after a rise in injuries sustained by staff trying to lift obese patients into ordinary ambulances.He said: “In recent years we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of calls to transport obese patients to hospital. We also struggled in many situations because our ambulances were not capable of carrying some very heavy patients and there were also a lot of injuries sustained trying to lift them.
He added that trust already owned the vehicle – originally intended to transport emergency heart patients – but decided to modify it at a cost of £5,000 as it was rarely being used.
As it is capable of carrying up to four ordinary sized patients, the vehicle can also now be used for attending major incidents where there are multiple casualties.

Marine Security

The US Navy says dolphins and sea lions will stand guard this year at a submarine base to detect any underwater swimmers who might approach the base on Hood Canal.The US Navy is keeping security details secret, but the environmental impact statement for the project said there would be fewer than 20 animals kept in heated enclosures when not on patrol in Washington state. 
Marine mammals have been used as guards for years at another Trident submarine base at King's Bay, Georgia. Navy spokesman Tom LaPuzza in San Diego told the Kitsap Sun that Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions are ready to go on patrol at Bangor. The dolphins can find an intruder and release a beacon. Sea lions can attach a cuff to a swimmer's leg.

 

Criminal Snoopy

A man tried to break into prison to free an inmate while dressed as the cartoon character Snoopy. Prison wardens were baffled when they were confronted by the character from the Peanuts cartoon trying to break down a staff door while apparently waving a gun. The man and an accomplice, who were attempting to free a relative from HMP Isle of Wight ,Britain, went on to hurl concrete missiles at prison officers’ cars.
A prison source told The Sun: “It’s not every day you see a giant cartoon dog go on the rampage after trying to break into a prison. They weren’t exactly inconspicuous but they were taken seriously because they appeared to have a gun. They caused a real commotion and it was only later they were found to be armed with a water pistol.”
It emerged after the pair were arrested that they had attempted to break into the wrong prison. They had staged the attempted jail-break at the Isle of Wight’s Albany site, while the relative they were looking for was locked up in the nearby Cramp Hill unit.
The source added: “This has got to rank as one of the worst attempted jail breaks ever.”
A spokesman for Hampshire Police said two men, aged 43 and 21, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and held under the Mental Health Act after the incident on May 1.
It is not clear which of the two men was dressed as Snoopy.

Im-mobile house

A man makes his car his permanent home when it breaks down in the middle of te Arabian Desert.
Saad al-Qahtani was driving in the western Saudi desert between Mecca and Jeddah one day 18 years ago when his beloved Chevrolet Suburban broke down. He couldn’t fix it, so he did the next best thing: he stayed there and made it his home. The 61-year-old man’s parents and sisters had all passed away by that time, according to the Saudi Gazette on Saturday. He had lost his security guard job for health reasons, tried cattle ranching but the livestock all went missing, so he began driving on odd jobs in the area until the fateful day when the huge SUV gave in. Instead of calling a mechanic, he decided to make it his permanent home.


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Junior Voter

A 14 year old boy, named locally as Alfie McKenzie of Carleton near Pulton, Lancs, managed to evade basic checks to cast a vote in the Wyre and Preston North Constituency during the 2010 General Elections in Britain. The legal voting age is currently 18.

It came on the night in which hundreds of adults were denied the chance to vote by long queues at polling stations.
Alfie, who stood as a candidate in his school election before defying taking part in the real thing, was questioned by police over the breach.

His mother, Nadine, said:"Alfie is sorry is he has caused any mayhem- he loves his politics and I am sure just wanted to be part of the Election process. Sadly at 14 that cannot be done."
Lancashire Police were called in to investigate after a tip off. Jim Corry, chief executive of Wyre Borough Council, confirmed that an under-age voter had taken part in the poll.
But police stressed that the breach had no effect on the results for the seat, which was held by Tory Ben Wallace with a large majority.

Power to a flower

Britain's rarest wild flower is to be protected by extra police patrols and possibly even CCTV in an attempt to stop it being stolen when it flowers this month.

The Lady's Slipper orchid at Silverdale Golf Course in Carnfoth, Lancashire, is the last remaining flowering plant in the country. Cuttings from the plant can be sold to collectors for up to £5,000.

Although experts have tried to re-introduce the purple and yellow bloom in other areas, none of them have flowered.

Lancashire Police is now mounting a three-pronged defence of the flower amid concerns thieves may strike in May or June when the plant flowers.

Officers have been ordered to 'ensure the safety' of the orchid by including it in their routine foot patrols, meaning they will pass it every hour or so. Police will also tag the 100-year-old orchid with a coded security mark so that anyone who tries to sell a cutting to wildflower collectors can be caught.The orchid has been given a unique log number on the police computer system - which will alert the duty officer whenever a report concerning the flower is received.  The force is also considering spending thousands of pounds on CCTV cameras to keep a 24-hour watch on the orchid, which is protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

PC Tony Marsh, beat manager for the area, told Police Review: "We will be doing passing patrols, putting up deterrent notices, warning people about the offences and (asking them) to report any suspicious activity."

Last June a thief took a cutting from the plant, leaving it with just six flowers, and in 2004 a collector tried to dig up the entire plant by its roots, but managed to get away with just a part of the plant.

PC Marsh added: "The biggest threat is collectors. When flowers were taken last year, we think purely just to press and put in a book, the value on the crime report was thousands of pounds." PC Marsh has even circled the rare orchid with police crime scene tape in a bid to deter potential thieves.

PC Duncan Thomas, wildlife officer for Lancashire Constabulary, said the orchid - whose Latin name is Cypripedium calceolus - was "incredibly important". He said: "The Lady Slipper orchid is an incredibly important plant, having survived for over a hundred years when all other plants were thought extinct. It is iconic to many people who enjoy wildlife in Britain. People travel from all ends of the country on what is almost a pilgrimage to view the plant in bloom and are often overcome with emotion at the sight.We have been monitoring this amazing plant for a number of years and you can't help being impressed by not only its rarity but the incredible display when flowering. Sadly there are persons who will seek to steal it and as such we are working with Natural England staff to ensure its continued success."

Rob Petley-Jones, of English Nature, said: "It is completely illegal to even touch this plant, you would need a special licence for it."

Kiwi Course

It is often the butt of jokes, but for migrants starting a new life in New Zealand, getting to grips with the Kiwi accent is no laughing matter.

The flattened vowel, which turns "fish and chips" into "fush en chups", and a host of colourful colloquialisms can make communicating in Kiwi vastly different to speaking any other kind of English. Now, in an attempt to make the transition easier, puzzled new arrivals are being offered a course in how to understand the "kay-weay eksent".(kivi accent)

The Auckland Regional Migrant Services Charitable Trust, which helps migrants settle in New Zealand and find work, has set up the classes to help foreigners "understand the Kiwi accent and use of English".
Nazli Effendi, who created the course, said several aspects of New Zealand communication flummoxed newcomers.

"One of the things that migrants identify as being difficult is the speed at which New Zealanders speak," she told stuff.co.nz "The way New Zealanders pronounce their vowel sounds is also very different."

As well as decoding a heavy Kiwi accent, the course focuses on phrases that could be confusing to anyone coming to the country, not just non-English speakers.

"There are some English words which have a different meaning in New Zealand," she said."For example, 'crook' in New Zealand means sick, not a thief. I'm a South African, native-English speaker and I didn't understand that one!"
Trust director Mary Dawson said the course was aimed at highly skilled migrants "to ensure they obtain employment relevant to their skills".
New Zealanders are notoriously touchy about their accents, but like to poke fun at the accents of their Australian neighbours, who they accuse of sounding like the late crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.
A distinct New Zealand variant of the English language has been in existence since the last 19th century, when English novelist Frank Arthur Swinnerton described it as a "carefully modulated murmur."
From the beginning of the British settlement on the islands, a new dialect began to form by adopting Maori words to describe the different flora and fauna of New Zealand, for which English did not have any words of its own.
 
 
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Minimal Million

Childen who were expecting a new £70,000 playground complete with swings and slides have been left "devastated" after the council gave them a pile of concrete blocks instead.The "minimalist" design at Diamond Hall Pocket Park includes a variety of rectangular grey concrete blocks, described by Sunderland Council as "play features".
Parents had been expecting a traditional playground after they had been sent a leaflet on the plans which showed images of a climbing frame and swings.
Instead they have been left with the task of telling their children how best to play on the new blocks.
The park, in Millfield, has been given a makeover with money from a £2.5million Play Pathfinder grant awarded to Wearside.
Saacha Thompson, 34, said she had a hard time explaining to her three-year-old daughter Imogen that the park was finished. “When they said they had £2.5million for all the parks in Sunderland I think we were expecting something really good. But it looks like they spent about £200 on it,” she said.
Adele Hopper, 24, said her three-year-old son was devastated when she told him the play park was finished. “He was really upset at first. I was surprised to find out the park was finished. It didn't look finished. I thought they would put stuff on top of the concrete blocks”, she said.
However, the council said the concept for the playground was agreed after consultation with the community. Julie Gray, Head of Community Services, said: “The design of the park was the result of extensive public consultation, with the local community and councillors asked to give their views at a number of events on the layout of the park and what kind of equipment they would like to see installed.
“This design also includes a CCTV camera being installed to help maintain a safe and secure playing environment.”

Robbed with generosity

Police in Columbus are looking for a man they say robbed a bank near downtown, then handed two $100 bills to passers-by as he ran away. FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas said the man robbed a Huntington Bank branch early on Monday afternoon after showing a teller a gun in his waistband. Trombitas said the man was running up the street when he encountered a mother and daughter window-shopping. The robber stopped and gave them each a $100 bill, assured them it was real, then kept running. Trombitas said the mother and daughter from the Cleveland area were in town for a visit to Ohio State.

"We won't know what he was thinking until we catch him ," an FBI agent tells the Columbus Dispatch. One theory is that the mother had just given a homeless man some money, and authorities say the fleeing robber may have seen it.

Transporting Public Romance

A Copenhagen bus company has put love seats on 103 of its vehicles for people looking forward to make a new friend... or even something more.

"Even love at first sight is possible on the bus," said a spokesman for the British owned Arriva company to explain the two seats on each bus that are covered in red cloth and a "love seat" sign. "You never know what will happen," spokesman Martin Wex told AFP . "We cannot guarantee that you will find the person of your dreams.We are just offering the possibility for people to smile a bit more and possibly, to win someone's heart."

The experiment, which according to driver testimony has lightened the mood on buses, is to last two weeks, Wex said. "Some drivers have noticed smiling girls sitting in these seats," hoping for interesting company, he said.

In addition to helping customer relations, the "love seat" experiment aims to convince car drivers to leave their vehicles at home and opt for a more social mode of transport.

The New level of Boy Scouts

The Boy Scouts of America have expanded their awards from outdoor activities to include indoor pursuits, a move that has some purists shaking their heads.Boy Scouts have traditionally been rewarded for skills in tent pitching, knot tying and building campfires. But, in an attempt to keep up with changing times, scouts will now be able to show off a very different talent: playing video games. 

The new awards program gives the seven-to-11-year-old Cub Scouts members "belt loop and pins" for mastery of PlayStation, X-Box and Wii video games, but the children must also prove they understand the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings.

The ratings system recommends video games appropriate to a child's age "so we can arm the parents with good information, how to make the determination if its something they want," Boy Scouts spokesman Renee Fairrer said.

"Video games are in two-thirds of American homes. That's a pretty good number of people; they are in our schools, in most libraries," he said, explaining the reason behind the new awards program.

And the Boy Scouts are sure video games will not turn their younger members into couch potatoes.

"We have 53 programs and 28 of them are sports related like skateboard, rollers, hockey. It's a good balance," Mr Fairrer said.

Mexican light-weights

Mexico City's police department has introduced a new lower-calorie menu in cafeterias after finding out that almost three-quarters of officers are overweight. Hungry members of the 70,000-member force will now get 2,495 calories per day, 500 fewer than in previous servings. 

The new menu also features a healthy portion of vegetables. The three-meal-a-day menu announced on Sunday comes after a study found that at least 70 per cent of officers are overweight.

However, authorities face a big challenge in slimming down the force. Mexico City police are famous for soliciting small bribes from motorists, often with the phrase: "Give me something for a soft drink.".This habit may make the police unaffected