BEIJING (Reuters) -China, who has the most smokers in the world, is finally banning smoking in all medical facilities….as of 2011.
China not only has the most smokers, 320 million, but they also have some of the cheapest cigarettes, and are the world’s largest fag producers. More than half of all male Chinese doctors smoke. No word on the female rate, or if they let ladies be doctors.
TOKYO (Reuters) -Taking cues from antique shoppes in London, a Tokyo park has started playing the Mosquito tone throughout the night.
In hopes to abet vandalism in the park, they are playing the high-pitched tone to keep young thugs out of the garden. No word on how to get rid of rapists and murderers, yet.
“We were having trouble improving the situation and trying to decide what to do, when we found out about The Mosquito and decided to give it a try,” said Haruyuki Masuda, an official in charge of parks in Tokyo’s Adachi district. The park has had high rates of vandalism in recent years, and officials say that patrolling was not stopping the problem.
Thankfully, officials admit their hesitancy to use such a creep show product. “We were a little worried about whether the local government should be using such a device to exclude certain people, even if these are young people that are causing problems,” Masuda said.
The Mosquite produces a tone at around 17 khz, for you nerds.
SYDNEY (Reuters) -New Zeland police have called an international search for a couple on the lam after recieving an accidental $6 million in their bank account.
The couple, who own and operate a gas station in the north, applied for a WEstpac Bank $10,00 NZ overdrage, but 1,000 times the amount was paid. Westpac caught on to the error fairly quickly, and wants their money back. They have recovered some, but not all of the money.
Banking ombudsman Liz Brown told Rotorua’s The Daily Post newspaper that it is a criminal offense to spend money that was accidentally put into a bank account if they knew it did not belong to them.
Troy, MI –Built to show the benefits and successes of the green movement, the completely solar-powered million dollar Troy Community Center…has no power.
The building is currently closed to the public. The pipes repeatedly froze over the winter, leaving the floors flooded and badly damaged.
“It’s not safe right now, and there’s no estimated opening time because it depends on when we can get funding,” said Carol Anderson, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
“The system was designed to kick a heater on to keep water from freezing,” Biegler said. “The heater drew all reserve power out of the battery causing the system to back down and the pipes froze.”
Joe Veryser, an associate dean of architecture at the university, said he heard otherwise.
“What I heard repeatedly was that somebody turned off the breaker during the winter and forgot to turn it back on, which caused the pipes to freeze and then break.”
A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion and 42% “pro-choice.”
This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.
Wow. I don’t know why they even let him over there, but here is the obit, which I felt was re-post worthy.
60-year old Vietnam Vet Maj. Steven Hutchison, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was killed by a roadside bomb last week, making him the oldest soldier to die in the ongoing Iraq conflict.
Maj. Hutchison chose to re-enlist immediately after 9/11, against the better judgment of his wife. When she passed away in July 2007, he told the Associated Press that “part of him died,” and he re-enlisted regardless of what her wishes had been.
His brother, Richard Hutchison, said “He was very devoted to the service and to his country.”
The Pentagon said Steven Hutchison was killed in Iraq last Sunday. He was part of the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan.
ATLANTA (AP) - Maggie and John Anderson of Chicago vowed four months ago that for one year, they would try to patronize only black-owned businesses. The “Empowerment Experiment” means that sometimes they go without necessities, but it’s all par for the course.
“We kind of enjoy the sacrifice because we get to make the point … but I am going without stuff and I am frustrated on a daily basis,” Maggie Anderson said. “It’s like, my people have been here 400 years and we don’t even have a Walgreens to show for it.”
The couple has spent hundreds of dollars with black businesses from grocery stores to dry cleaners. But the couple still hasn’t found a mortgage lender, home security system vendor or toy store.
They are trying to step up their experiment by building a national database of quality black businesses. The first affiliate chapter has been launched in Atlanta, and the couple has established a foundation to raise funds for black businesses and an annual convention.
“We have the real power to do something, to use the money we spend every day to solve our problems,” Maggie Anderson said recently at a meet-and-greet in Atlanta. “We have to believe that black businesses are just as good as everybody else’s.”
Gregory Price, chairman of the economics department at Morehouse College, said black visionaries like Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey made similar calls to action.
“The idea is a sound one, given that black Americans are still underrepresented in the ranks of the self-employed and that entrepreneurship is a key component to wealth,” Price said.
There are one million black businesses in the United States accounting for more than $100 billion in annual sales, according to the National Black Chamber of Commerce. The latest U.S. Census numbers report that blacks have more than $800 billion in expendable income each year.
The Andersons track their spending on their Web site and estimate about 55 percent of their monthly spending is with black businesses for things like day care, groceries, car maintenance and home improvements.
Atlanta resident Lewis Peeples, 45, says, “So often, we make purchases and decisions and aren’t even mindful that there is a a need to support our own businesses. Now, I’m reaching out and making sure I know that I have an option when I look to make a purchase.”
Millions of Americans on Social Security are getting $250 checks with their tax refunds this year.
The difference between those millions and Anne Arundel? Arundel died in 1967.
Arundel’s son, 83-yr-old James Hagner, received the check in his mailbox last week.
“It shocked me and I laughed all at the same time,” Hagner said. “I don’t even expect to get one my own self, and I get one for my mother for 43 years ago?”
Social Security representatives claim that there is a good explanation. Of the about 52 million checks that have been mailed out, about 10,000 of those have been sent to people who are deceased.
Why?
They claim that the mid-June deadline for mailings didn’t leave enough time to clean records.
Agents ask that people return the check if they receive it. They ask relatives of the deceased to return checks.
Hagner said he’d like to frame it and hang it on his wall.
“I just want to keep it as a souvenir, that’s all. I’ll never cash it,” Hagner said.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - - An Indian, in an attempt to father a son after a 7-long string of daughters, has stopped showering. FOR 35 YEARS.
Kailash “Kalau” Singh no longer takes taditional baths, but “fire baths” every evening while meditating on one leg. HIGH. Praying to Shiva. For a Y chromosome. True.
Kalau, 63, from a village outside the holy city of Varanasi, outraged his family by refusing to take a ritual dip in the river Ganges even after his brother died five years ago.
“I still don’t remember how it all began,” he said in Saturday’s edition of the paper. “I just know it started about 35 years ago.”
Kalau’s hygiene regime has taken its toll on his professional life.
The grocery store that he used to own closed when customers stopped shopping because of his “unhealthy personality.”