What's in the News

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Bugalugs

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #315 on: December 05, 2007, 05:46:34 PM »
Dried noodles kill four Chinese schoolchildren

Four Chinese children died after eating a dried-noodle snack in the poor southern province of Yunnan, the latest in a string of food-poisoning accidents across the country.

The children bought the noodles on the way to school on Monday, the Beijing News said.

"The children began frothing at the mouth, were lapsing in and out of consciousness and clasped their hands together in distress," teacher Yang Tingzhou was quoted as saying.

The children were rushed to hospital where they died in the emergency room. Local officials were investigating all stores selling non-staple foods in the area, the newspaper said. There was no suggestion the poisoning was deliberate, it added.

It said families of the children would be given 6,000 yuan ($800) in compensation.

Food poisoning is a frequent problem at Chinese schools, especially in rural areas, where lax official supervision encourages canteen contractors to cut costs at the expense of proper hygiene and food safety.

China has also come under fire for a string of quality scandals involving products including food, toothpaste, drugs and toys.

Public fears about food safety grew in 2004, when at least 13 babies died of malnutrition in Anhui province, in eastern China, after they were fed fake milk powder with no nutritional value.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2007, 05:49:52 PM by Bugalugs »
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Bugalugs

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #316 on: December 15, 2007, 10:55:30 PM »
See what happens when Santa drops his standards

Police hunt for Santa's filthiest elf


The post office and police in Canada are searching for a "rogue elf" believed responsible for mailing filthy letters to children on behalf of Santa Claus.

A handful of reply letters to children who wrote to jolly Saint Nick contained comments such as, "This letter is too long, you dumb s***".

Canada Post spokeswoman Cindy Daoust said: "We firmly believe there is just one rogue elf out there responsible for the letters. In our history, we've never had a problem of this nature."

She explained that the letters were part of a Santa letter-writing program in which postal workers across Canada reply to letters from children around the world posted to Santa Claus, the North Pole, Canada, postal code H0H0H0.

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Every reply letter is identical, except for a hand-written personalised postscript added by one of 11,000 volunteers.

Last year, Canada Post replied to 1.06 million letters on behalf of Santa, and 15 million letters have been posted since the program began in 1981.

Canada Post president Moya Greene said in a statement, "We are shocked and heart-broken that this much-loved quarter-of-a-century old program has experienced an incident of this kind."

"We deeply apologise to any families affected by this," she added, noting that police were asked to help identify the culprit.

Canada Post briefly shut down the program in Ottawa, after parents complained. A dozen inappropriate letters had been dropped in mailboxes throughout the capital city, but there could be more, officials warned.

Previously, Canada Post had received only one complaint about the program. In 1999, a seven-year-old in Oshawa, Ontario, received a Santa message from Canada Post that called him "one greedy little boy!"
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AMonk

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #317 on: December 15, 2007, 11:20:21 PM »
Moderation....in most things...

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Bugalugs

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #318 on: December 17, 2007, 11:28:00 PM »
Santa's new sleigh gets safety clearance

Christmas is on Track :)

Children can breathe a sigh of relief - Santa's new sleigh has passed safety tests and is ready for his big Christmas flight, authorities say.

The sleigh, equipped with flight technology, passed safety tests conducted around the North Pole and is now ready to fly on Christmas Eve, Airservices Australia has confirmed.

"Airservices Australia worked with the North Pole to upgrade the safety features on the sleigh," Airservices spokesman Terry O'Connor said.

"Australia's aviation safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, has now checked the sleigh and issued an international clearance."

Santa has agreed to release photos of the test flights as well as more information about his new sleigh and flight plans later in the week.

Children can also use his sleigh flight simulator by visiting www.airservicesaustralia.com/santa07, which Santa uses to practice in the lead up to Christmas.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2007, 11:30:07 PM by Bugalugs »
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Mr Nobody

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #319 on: December 18, 2007, 07:02:20 AM »
Deary deary me.

I think I liked the good old days when Santa was just like this guy, you know, who did stuff. None of this attendant crap, like bullshit flight checks and official santa letters.

But then, I found out who Santa really was just after my fourth birthday. Too observant for my own good.

Grandparents were very disappointed. I spent most of the Christmases for most of the next decade getting lectures from my Dad about why I shouldn't go around telling kids my own age the truth about Santa. Apparently the other kids parents were not impressed.

Dunno why. I never said nuffin about the Easter Bunny....
Just another roadkill on the information superhighway.

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Lotus Eater

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #320 on: December 18, 2007, 12:50:56 PM »
My daughters still believe in Santa - they operate on the "No believe no receive' principle and so convincingly tell me every year that they still believe.

Although Santa is now into the 'socks and jocks' phase of present giving. afafafafaf

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AMonk

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #321 on: December 18, 2007, 01:08:49 PM »
My daughters still believe in Santa


So does my son.  When he was about 7 or 8, he said that some kids had told him that Santa is just your parents.  I pointed out that if that WAS the case, then there was no longer any need for putting up a stocking, was there?  gggggggggg

He still believes.....and so does my DiL and Hubby. bfbfbfbfbf
Moderation....in most things...

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Bugalugs

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #322 on: December 19, 2007, 12:30:43 AM »
Cash-happy ATM lands Chinese man life in prison

A man in China's southern city of Guangzhou has been jailed for life for taking funds from a malfunctioning ATM, according to local media reports.

In April last year, Xu Ting let his friend in on his secret that the ATM deducted only 1 yuan (15c) from his account for every 1,000 yuan ($150) withdrawn.

"Xu subsequently withdrew 175,000 yuan ($26,250) in 171 transactions while Guo withdrew 18,000 yuan," the Beijing News reported.

Guo was jailed for a year after turning himself in while Xu remained on the run for a year before being apprehended and sentenced to life for theft.

The sentence has sparked an outcry from local media.

"Sentenced to life for unexpectedly discovering an ATM's malfunction and enticed into committing a crime is too harsh," the Beijing News said in an editorial.

Xu's lawyer said the ATM was the responsibility of the bank and it had had ample time to recover the lost funds.

Xu's actions should come under the lesser charge of embezzlement, it added.

Xu has appealed against his sentence.
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Bugalugs

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #323 on: December 20, 2007, 06:23:16 AM »
"Don't tase me, bro" tops 07 memorable quotes list
By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Don't Tase Me, Bro," a phrase that swept the nation after a U.S. college student used it seeking to stop campus police from throwing him out of a speech by Sen. John Kerry, was named Wednesday as the most memorable quote of 2007.

Fred R. Shapiro, the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, said the plea made by University of Florida student Andrew Meyer on September 17, accompanied by Meyer's screams as he was tased, beat out the racial slur that cost shock jock Don Imus his job and the Iranian president's declaration that his country does not have homosexuals.

Shapiro said Meyer's quote was a symbol of pop culture success. Within two days it was one of the most popular phrases on Google and one of the most viewed videos. It also showed up on ringtones and T-shirts.

Second on Shapiro's list was this tortuous answer by Lauren Upton, the South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen America contest in August:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us." Upton had been asked why one-fifth of Americans are unable to locate the United States on a map and later apologized for her answer not making a lot of sense.

Third was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's October comment at Columbia University in New York, "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."

Shock jock Don Imus comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team: "That's some nappy-headed hos there," was fourth.

Imus created a national outcry and lost his job at CBS radio in April, but returned to the airwaves in December with Citadel Broadcasting.

Other phrases on the list:

5. "I don't recall." -- Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' repeated response to questioning at a congressional hearing about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

6. "There's only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." -- Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate.

7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody (Vice President Dick Cheney) who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.

8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's explanation of why his foot touched that of an undercover policeman in a men's room.

9. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." -- Biden describing rival Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

10. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." -- Former President Jimmy Carter in an interview in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.
Good girls are made from sugar and spice, I am made from Vodka and ice

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #324 on: December 21, 2007, 12:14:22 AM »
How, in the name of logic, can Time Magazine declare Vladimir Putin to be "Man of the year"????
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

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George

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #325 on: December 21, 2007, 12:18:48 AM »
lack of alternatives??
The higher they fly, the fewer!    http://neilson.aminus3.com/

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #326 on: December 21, 2007, 12:22:00 AM »
What's next? Kim Jong-Il as "Humanitarian of the Year"?
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #327 on: December 21, 2007, 12:43:18 AM »
How, in the name of logic, can Time Magazine declare Vladimir Putin to be "Man of the year"????

Really!?  The man is pure evil!
And there is no liar like the indignant man... -Nietszche

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. -William James

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AMonk

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Re: What's in the News
« Reply #328 on: December 21, 2007, 01:05:34 AM »
Their stated rationale is that Cousin Vlad (not The Impaler) brought his nation "from chaos to stability".
Moderation....in most things...

Re: What's in the News
« Reply #329 on: December 21, 2007, 01:14:13 AM »
So they just decided to ignore the fact that Comerade Stasi (which was Putin's nickname in his KGB days) is a Cold War relic who uses KGB stron-arm tactics and will resort to murder to silence any and all opposition?
Oh well, guess I should not be surprised...If Arafat could get the Nobel Peace Prize, Putin can be Man of the Year.
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." Oscar Wilde.

"It's all oojah cum spiffy". Bertie Wooster.
"The stars are God's daisy chain" Madeleine Bassett.