Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[TinyRedLeaf]

Marijuana vending machines in US

BBC News (28 Jan 08) - Vending machines distributing the drug marijuana are to begin operating in the US state of California.

The machines can only be used by people who have been prescribed the drug for health reasons. Patients will have to provide a prescription, and be fingerprinted and photographed before being allowed to use the facilities.

Once the users have been photographed, fingerprinted and have shown their prescription, they will be issued with a card which can be used in the machines, he told KWTX News 10 in the US.

"They'll be greeted by a security guard right there. They'll slide the card in and they'll fingerprint in to verify that it's them," he was quoted by KWTX News 10 as saying. "A camera takes a picture of them, verifying that they're actually at the machine. And they get the medicine and they move on."

The operators think that vending machines issuing prescription drugs could become a common sight in the US.

It's not really silly news, but I can already forsee the silly things that happy people will do...

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Marijuana vending machines in US



It's not really silly news, but I can already forsee the silly things that happy people will do...

Futurama was right after all it seems. How much longer before we have vending machines selling "refreshing crack"?

[Pendevous]

It's like saying, "say YES to drugs." swt -_-'

[Itachikun]

http://gizmodo.com/350091/cheeseburg...-ive-ever-seen

I LIKE! Finally more more people will buy this great achievement, lol "Best achievement of mankind" I cracked up to that line.

[TinyRedLeaf]

^ Sliced bread has finally met its match!

[User65554]

A Chinese shopping list thought to have been written 300 years ago has been found stuffed inside an 18th Century vase in a York stately home.

The discovery was made at Fairfax House while artefacts were being cleaned.

Supervisor Peter Musgrove said: "I heard a rattling in a vase and found a crumpled-up piece of rice paper with black ink Chinese writing."

The list, showing the cost of pigments purchased to decorate the vase, will be sent away for further analysis.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by VK-Pitt

A Chinese shopping list thought to have been written 300 years ago has been found stuffed inside an 18th Century vase in a York stately home.

How do you not notice a piece of paper inside a vase for 300 years? I mean someone would have had to dust it at least once in that time.

Of course if it had been noticed when the vase was new, odds are it would have been thrown away. Makes you wonder thouugh... Maybe in 300 years, the junk we throw away like reciepts would be priceless historical relics.

[User65554]

THE FUTURE MUSEUM OF THE PAST:

"...And in this cabinet, you can see the ancient scrolls, and they are translated, roughly, as 'Milk, sugar, eggs, fruit, bacon, chocolate'. Although scholars have worked round the clock, they have yet to find the secret meaning to this excerpt from what was once surely an epic poem..."

[aohige]

Originally Posted by VK-Pitt

THE FUTURE MUSEUM OF THE PAST:

"...And in this cabinet, you can see the ancient scrolls, and they are translated, roughly, as 'Milk, sugar, eggs, fruit, bacon, chocolate'. Although scholars have worked round the clock, they have yet to find the secret meaning to this excerpt from what was once surely an epic poem..."

....or a housewife's shopping list 300 years ago. Which is more likely.
I'm sure the article is being sarcastic tho

EDIT: nevermind, it was your humorous take on what will be on there I guess. For a sec, I thought you meant that's what actually said on the article

[User65554]

Originally Posted by aohige

EDIT: nevermind, it was your humorous take on what will be on there I guess. For a sec, I thought you meant that's what actually said on the article

Ha! No, I can assure you that that sentence came from the depths of my own mind.

[Dop]

BBC:

Bedroom furniture for young girls with the brand name Lolita has been withdrawn by Woolworths following complaints from parents.
A parenting website said it was in "unbelievably bad taste" to give the bed the same name as a novel about a sexually precocious young girl.
Woolworths said the £395 Lolita Midsleeper Combi was withdrawn when the matter was brought to its attention.

Those damned lolicons get everywhere!

I mean, did nobody in Woolworths' management see that decision and think "Er.... No. Hang on a minute..."?

[aka Providence]

Tear-free onions

WELLINGTON (AFP) - Scientists in New Zealand and Japan have created a "tear-free" onion using biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us cry, one of the leading researchers said Friday.

ADVERTISEMENT

The discovery could signal an end to one of cooking's eternal puzzles: why does cutting up a simple onion sting the eyes and trigger teardrops?

The research institute in New Zealand, Crop and Food, used gene-silencing technology to make the breakthrough which it hopes could lead to a prototype onion hitting the market in a decade's time.

Colin Eady, the institute's senior scientist, said the project started in 2002 after Japanese scientists located the gene responsible for producing the agent behind the tears.

"We previously thought the tearing agent was produced spontaneously by cutting onions, but they proved it was controlled by an enzyme," he told AFP from his home outside Christchurch.

"Here in New Zealand we had the ability to insert DNA into onions, using gene-silencing technology developed by Australian scientists.

"The technology creates a sequence that switches off the tear-inducing gene in the onion so it doesn't produce the enzyme. So when you slice the vegetable, it doesn't produce tears."

Eady said that by stopping sulphur compounds from being converted to the tearing agent and redirecting them into compounds responsible for flavour and health, the process could even improve the taste of the onion.

"We anticipate that the health and flavour profiles will actually be enhanced by what we've done," he said.

"What we're hoping is that we'll essentially have a lot of the nice, sweet aromas associated with onions without that associated bitter, pungent, tear-producing factor."

The breakthrough has caused ripples overseas, following an international symposium in the Netherlands and after the trade journal Onion World featured Eady's work on the front cover of its December issue.

Eady, who has several model onion plants at the institute, said despite the excitement about the prospect of "no tears" onions in every home, it would be 10 to 15 years before this happened.

"This is an exciting project because it's consumer orientated and everyone sees this as a good biotechnology story," he said.

"I'm more interested in sustainable production and the onions we are working on must be capable of being grown in an efficient manner.

"We have a burgeoning population to feed, and with climate change and other challenges, available resources are being reduced.

"The gene silencing system can also be used to combat virus diseases, and biotechnology in general can help us produce more robust crops."

not as strange as the rest of the news here, but meh...

[TinyRedLeaf]

Take off and strip off

BBC News in Erfurt, Germany (2 Feb 08)

Why had I made the trip to Erfurt's premier nudist location in the freezing cold?

Because this town has suddenly become the launch pad for a body revolution - one which is set to take the culture of nudism to dizzy new heights. At a travel agent 10 minutes from the beach, I find a manager processing online ticket requests for a very unusual journey - a flight for nudists.

Pay 499 euros and, this July, you'll get the chance to take off - and strip off up in the air. And naked you'll stay until the plane touches down in Usedom on the Baltic coast. "I think people feel free when they are really naked. That's what it is about," tour rep Sandra Koehler informs me.

I ask Sandra for more details (purely for the purposes of writing this piece, you understand). "At what point will the passengers be allowed to take off their clothes? At check-in?"

"No. Only once they've boarded the plane."

Immediately I foresee problems (I can't help it - I'm a worrier).

"But what if the stewardess spills a hot cup of coffee over a naked passenger?"

"Hot drinks will be banned on board," says Sandra calmly.

"What about hygiene?" I ask. "All those naked bodies!"

"Passengers will be required to sit on towels covering the seats," says Sandra. She seems to have an answer for everything.

"But isn't fastening seat belts going to be a bit, well, risky - for the male passengers?" That got her. "I didn't think of that!" Sandra laughs.

She's probably right. It doesn't "bare" thinking about.

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Take off and strip off

NOW That's WEIRD. I honestly cannot imagine a plane like that <_< zomg...

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by tiachopvutru

NOW That's WEIRD. I honestly cannot imagine a plane like that <_< zomg...

Orgy at 3000 feet

[Archontic]

Certainly hope none of the participants get airsick.

Anyways, I don't know if this was posted, but..

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6228443.html

Fapping on the go / wireless wanking

[Detheal]

Thief Caught After Cookie Snack

Source: Reuters
February 4th, 2008

MALAYSIAN police have arrested a thief who fell asleep after snacking on cookies in the home of his victim and was discovered curled up in bed clutching a stolen purse, a newspaper has reported.

V. Sathya, an insurance manager in the northern Malaysian state of Terengganu, said his nine-year old son was startled to find the intruder sleeping in his bed, with a blanket pulled over his head, after the family returned from a shopping trip.

"He shouted and ran out of his room," Sathya told the Star newspaper.

"Even then the burglar did not wake up and carried on sleeping while holding on to one of my wife's purses."

The thief also ate up the cookies the family had prepared for Chinese New Year celebrations next weekend.

"My wife had prepared various delicacies over the past few days but the rogue ate everything," said Sathya, who is married to an ethnic Chinese.

I guess you could say the thief got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

[@nonymous]

^-- maybe they were cookies laced with a sleep-inducing drug? xD

[Xellos-_^]

Winston Churchill was myth

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

Never, in the field of human ignorance, have so many known so little about famous Britons.
A quarter of the population think that Winston Churchill never actually existed, a survey suggests.

While a poll recently named him the greatest Briton of all time, the wartime prime minister is seen by many as a mythical figure along with the likes of Florence Nightingale and Sir Walter Raleigh.




According to the survey of 3,000 respondents, many believe the inspirational Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Cleopatra and the Duke of Wellington are also characters dreamed up for films and books.

Americans can go to sleep easy knowing thier british cousins are every bit as stupid and ignorant as they are

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by LONDON (Reuters)

Retired hospital porter Steve Smith, who is suffering from a potentially fatal heart defect, won almost 19 million pounds ($38 million) on Britain's National Lottery -- but said he would give it all up if he could spend a few more years living with his wife Ida.
ADVERTISEMENT

"I have a one in 10 chance of living. It's like a ticking time bomb," said the 58-year-old Smith, enjoying a bittersweet glass of celebratory champagne with his wife Ida.

Smith, who has an aortic aneurysm, told reporters when collecting his check: "It's Ida I worry for, it's leaving her behind. I would give all that back if I am allowed to still be with her because there are no shops in the cemetery are there?"

Smith landed the giant prize with an extra stroke of luck -- the couple stopped off on the way home from a family visit to buy some lucky dip tickets and it was one of those which hit the jackpot.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080131/...tnFaYWIl4DW7oF

Life can be so cruel and ironic, hahaha ^^