Coca-Cola (Japan) Co Ltd, together with Fuji Electric Retail Systems Co Ltd have succeeded in developing the “A011” peak-shift vending machine. This vending machine, developed as part of the Apollo ultra-energy-saving vending machine development project, can operate without using power for cooling for up to 16 hours per day. The successfully developed A011 peak-shift vending […]
Happy campers pitch in to join the Games
IT’S ultra cheap and when the sun’s out, pretty cheerful too. But if London’s Olympic Games turn out to be the wettest ever, as Britain’s gloomier meteorologists fear, there will be several thousand visitors rather more disappointed than others. ”It rained when I arrived and was trying to put up the tent last night,” said […]
Italy’s wartime hero used cycling fame to save Jews
GINO Bartali was born dirt poor, and the odds in Italy at the time said he should have stayed that way. His school results were so bad his teachers struggled to say something positive on his report cards. They settled for the only attribute they could find: ”Good personal hygiene”. The social order of the […]
No butts about it, Paris is at war
Since France banned smoking in public places more than four years ago, Parisians have felt little compunction about throwing their cigarette butts into the streets and gutters, overwhelming the city’s ability to keep them clean. A stroll through parts of Paris on weekend mornings is like walking in an ashtray. Now the city is quietly […]
Customs officials say pens need weapons import license
Japanese customs officials who impounded 200 pens more than a year ago said Friday the writing implements needed a weapons import license because they were shaped like bullets. Fountain and ballpoint pens made by U.S. firearms and knife manufacturers, including Smith and Wesson, have been held up by inspectors in Nagoya and Osaka since April […]
Canada senator wants polar bear as national emblem
A proposal to replace the beaver – described by one senator as a ‘dentally defective rat’ – with a polar bear as Canada’s national emblem provoked rebukes from across the nation on Friday. Senator Nicole Eaton called for adoption of the cold-loving polar bear, the world’s largest walking carnivore, as a new symbol of Canada. […]
Fake doctor injects cement in woman’s bottom
A US woman who wanted to work at a nightclub started searching for someone who could perform plastic surgery at a cheap price to give her a more curvaceous body. What she found was a woman posing as a doctor who filled her buttocks with cement, mineral oil and flat-tyre sealant, Florida police say. The […]
Michael Jackson is world’s top dead earner
For a second straight year Michael Jackson is the world’s top dead earner, according to a macabre list compiled by Forbes magazine of stars whose earning power remains undiminished beyond the grave. The King of Pop, who died two years ago at the age of 50, brought in $170 million for his estate over the […]
Apple renderings for new ‘spaceship’ campus
Apple has updated the plans for its “spaceship” campus, offering a few new details about the massive facility that the late Steve Jobs pitched to the Cupertino City Council before his death. The plans were posted on Cupertino.org this week, revealing that the roof of the circular main building will be covered in photovoltaic solar […]
Is this the worst way to hide 204kg of cocaine?
BOLIVIAN drug-smugglers seem to be running low on ingenious ways to hide their masses of cocaine. Disguising the stash as flour or washing-up powder appears to be a little too old school for South American drug-runners – with the new method of choice being to wrap their blocks in Swastikas. A van carrying 204kg of […]