Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Floppys are actually easy to use....

Floppy disk are the worse hardware ever I have used. Most of them die too fast.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Floppy disk are the worse hardware ever I have used. Most of them die too fast.

They do...But I mean the actual usage. It's easier than disks


although admittedly thumb drives beat them both

[AnimeFan188]

Japan to become first country to put billboard ad on moon:

"America may have put the first man on the moon, but Japan is going to be the first
to send up the first advertising billboard — in the shape of a can.

Japanese drink-maker Otsuka is going to send a titanium can that weighs about 2.2
pounds and that can serve as a mini-sized billboard for the company. It’ll be packed
with Pocari Sweat powder, which forms into a non-carbonated, citrus-flavored drink
when liquid is added, United Press International reported.

The can is going to touch down in October 2015, when Japan makes its voyage ship
trip to the moon, via its Falcon 9.

“Otsuka hopes that one day youths interested in space will live out their dreams,
collect the DREAM CAPSULE and drink the POCARI SWEAT mixed with the water
found on the moon,” a press release about the mission stated."

See:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...oard-ads-moon/

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Japan to become first country to put billboard ad on moon:

"America may have put the first man on the moon, but Japan is going to be the first
to send up the first advertising billboard — in the shape of a can.

Japanese drink-maker Otsuka is going to send a titanium can that weighs about 2.2
pounds and that can serve as a mini-sized billboard for the company. It’ll be packed
with Pocari Sweat powder, which forms into a non-carbonated, citrus-flavored drink
when liquid is added, United Press International reported.

The can is going to touch down in October 2015, when Japan makes its voyage ship
trip to the moon, via its Falcon 9.

“Otsuka hopes that one day youths interested in space will live out their dreams,
collect the DREAM CAPSULE and drink the POCARI SWEAT mixed with the water
found on the moon,” a press release about the mission stated."

See:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...oard-ads-moon/

So we are going to send more garbage to the moon.

[Shyni]

Crazed sheep die 'like heroin addicts'

Basically, a plant they ate caused them to start bashing their heads a lot. Sounds painful. Although I guess it would mess with their senses and all that.

[AnimeFan188]

The town where Rip van Winkle is real: People who live near a Russian uranium
mine doze off for up to SIX days at a time (and they may have buried an old man
alive by mistake):

"The illness has come in a number of waves, for example May 2013, New Year 2014,
and this month.

Some residents even keep bags packed in case they need to be whisked to hospital.

It is believed to be caused by a disused uranium mine nearby - but experts cannot
find evidence to make the connection."

See:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-mistake.html

[TinyRedLeaf]

Japan's Kinki University to change pervy name

Osaka (May 21, Wed): Japan's Kinki University has decided it's time for a name change after years of foreigners sniggering about its pervy nomenclature.

The name "Kinki University" doesn't even raise an eyebrow in Japan, coming as it does from the Kinki area — the country's mid-western region in and around Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures.

But the university's dean, Mr Hitoshi Shiozaki, told reporters this week that he is tired of the giggles he gets abroad when he tells people where he works.

"The word 'kinky' also means perverted," he said. "We have no other choice than changing the English name because we are serious about pursuing a more international school culture."

Kinki University will become Kindai University — a contraction of "Kinki" and "Daigaku" (university) — the school said, but the change will only take effect in 2016, when a new international studies faculty is opened.

Managers hope the move will embolden students to apply for exchanges, safe in the knowledge that they won't be laughed at just for the name of their university.

Japanese, which has far fewer sounds than many European languages, abounds with vaguely amusing transliterations. No major urban centre, for example, is without its own Shiti Hotel — the less-than-inviting pronunciation of "city hotel".

AFP

I kinda feel sorry for foreigners enrolling at the university thinking they would get to interact with lots of curvy catgirls or meet fellow aficionados of silky stockings.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Drats... there goes that idea.

Fukushima Industries said it would rename its mascot, Fukuppy, after internet users pointed out its unfortunate resemblance to an English expression that many feel describes the catastrophe at the unrelated Fukushima nuclear power plant.

I can't help but think the whole thing is a joke with a paragraph like that, it made me laugh quite a bit, which then made me feel a little bad about it.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Japan's Kinki University to change pervy name


I kinda feel sorry for foreigners enrolling at the university thinking they would get to interact with lots of curvy catgirls or meet fellow aficionados of silky stockings.

NSFW

I thought they enrolled for lecturers like this

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Tiberium Wolf]

French red faces over trains that are 'too wide'

The French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains it ordered at a cost of 15bn euros ($20.5bn; £12.1bn) are too wide for many regional platforms.

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says that it is an embarrassing blunder that has so far cost the rail operator over 50m euros ($68.4m; £40.6m).

Our correspondent says that the cost is likely to rise even further.

Construction work has already started to reconfigure station platforms.

The work will allow new trains room to pass through. But officials say that there are still 1,000 platforms to be adjusted.

The error seems to have happened because the national rail operator RFF gave the wrong dimensions to train company SNCF.

Our correspondent says that they measured platforms built less than 30 years ago, overlooking the fact that many of France's regional platforms were built more than 50 years ago when trains were a little slimmer.

The platform edges are too close to the tracks in some stations which means the trains cannot get in, officials say.

A spokesman for the RFF confirmed they had "discovered the problem a bit late".

Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier blamed an "absurd rail system" for the problems.

"When you separate the rail operator from the train company," he said, "this is what happens."

LOL! They should take the chance to renovate all stations instead of just cutting a chunk of the platforms.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Judge Gives Rich Man Arrested For 7th DUI No Jail Time Because “It Wouldn’t Be Fair for Him”

Somehow seven DUIs and one involving the destruction of two cars and part of a house – not to mention the dangers Goodman posed to other drivers and pedestrians – weren’t enough for a judge to feel that prison was right for Goodman. At his trial, the judge spoke about the balance between the harm caused by Goodman and the harm that would be done to his business if he had to go to prison.

The judge also helped Goodman in other ways that violate protocol. In February, he also granted Goodman permission to fly to New York City to watch the Super Bowl even though Washington state law states that defendants aren’t allowed to leave the state during a pending trial.

Critics say this is another example of how the criminal justice system has two sets of rules: leniency and understanding for the wealthy, zero-tolerance for the rest of us.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Judge Gives Rich Man Arrested For 7th DUI No Jail Time Because “It Wouldn’t Be Fair for Him”

I agree with the judge. Compared to the other unproductive members of the society, he contributes more tax to the country. It is only fair that he gets less jail time so he can work more and contribute more. [/sarcasm]

[risingstar3110]

^ Agree

Also mad man who wanted to turn real street into GTA have more incentive to get rich.

The event also definitely has just see a flock of millionaires and billionaires migrating into US to live up their dream of 'walk free after running from the chase police'

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I agree with the judge. Compared to the other unproductive members of the society, he contributes more tax to the country. It is only fair that he gets less jail time so he can work more and contribute more. [/sarcasm]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

^ Agree

Also mad man who wanted to turn real street into GTA have more incentive to get rich.

The event also definitely has just see a flock of millionaires and billionaires migrating into US to live up their dream of 'walk free after running from the chase police'

BTW, what is the agency that checks for corruption in US anyway...

[GDB]

That's cute, thinking such an agency exists.

[Tiberium Wolf]

UN committee imposes sanctions on Nigeria's Boko Haram

Hum? Arms embargo and asset freeze!? Against a group of savanna barbarians? Can UN be more useless than this or they know their sponsor and not telling us?

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

UN committee imposes sanctions on Nigeria's Boko Haram

Hum? Arms embargo and asset freeze!? Against a group of savanna barbarians? Can UN be more useless than this or they know their sponsor and not telling us?

Shhh.... give them the illusion that they can actually do something about this

[Tiberium Wolf]

Drunk Tennessee man tried to have sex with ATM, picnic table

Hahahaha!

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Drunk Tennessee man tried to have sex with ATM, picnic table

Hahahaha!

I wonder if he practiced the withdrawal method.

[Kotohono]

'The Daily Show' Runs Entirely Made-Up Opinion Poll in Indian Newspaper

The Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones reported from India for last night’s show and found that despite a thriving and open newspaper culture, journalistic ethics look entirely different in the world’s largest democracy.

“I can just go out and buy a story written about myself?” Jones asked Indian journalist Puja Gupta, around the 3:30 mark. “Yeah,” she replied.

In India, newspapers take the concept of “sponsored content” to the extreme: For a price, anyone can run a fake article or entirely manufactured opinion poll in one of the country’s 93,000 registered newspapers—without any indication that the content was purchased, Jones reported. So that’s what he did.

For $2,500, Jones bought a spot on page two of the Indian newspaper Millennium Post that carried the headline, “Poll Shows US Number A-1 Star Jason Jones Does Best Indian Election Coverage.” It is accompanied by two clearly Photoshopped photos—one with Jones’s head pasted onto a glistening, shirtless, muscled body. The very-real article ran in the print edition, and it can be seen on the Millennium Post’s website. Anyone who hasn’t seen the Daily Show segment would have no indication that it isn’t a factual article.

Wow, even in America I don't think you could get away with this .