NEW YORK — A 10-year-old boy in New York has set a new world record for wearing the most underpants. Jack Singer spent his birthday stepping into more than 200 pairs of undies. His family helped him with the challenge. At one point, the boy’s feet fell asleep. They placed him on the ground and kept going. It took 18 minutes for Jack to put on 215 pairs of underwear. That beat out the previous record of 200. In the end, Jack looked a bit bottom-heavy and tired. The boy used his record to raise money for a local marine who was wounded in Iraq.

Two historic sex toys thought to date back to the 1700s have been sold at an Essex auction for £3,600.

The wooden items, believed to be French, were auctioned at Brentwood Antiques Auction on Thursday.

Auctioneer Wendy Wood said: “You might laugh but it’s a good opportunity for investment. You won’t see another one in a long time.”

An anonymous bidder bought the pair which come with their own leather-lined case.

One of the objects measures 10in (25cm) and the other 11in (28cm).

Staff at the auction described the sex toys as “extraordinary and exceptionally rare”.

The catalogue description read: “Designed to please Lot 340 – an extraordinary and exceptionally rare “Travel Godermiche”.

“A pair of wooden phallus contained within a fitted kid leather covered Treen case with strap fleurs-de-lys decoration

“The case, although having a re-lined interior appears to have age commensurate with the phallus.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating employees at the Kennedy Airport air-traffic control tower for apparently allowing at least two school-age children to transmit directions to pilots.

CBS 2 has learned on two separate occasions in February, an air traffic controller from Long Island brought a child with him to work at JFK. The first incident occurred on Feb. 16, and the FAA told CBS 2 on Wednesday that a second child was brought into the tower by the controller a day later on Feb. 17.

At least one of the children was said to be 7 years old.

The 7-year-old spoke with several departing flights.

Child: Jet Blue 171 cleared for take-off.
JB 171: Cleared for takeoff, JetBlue 171.
Controller: Aero Mexico 403, Kennedy, 31L position and hold.
AMX 403: Position and hold Aero Mexico 403.
Controller: Here’s what you get, you guys, when the kids are out of school
Child: JetBlue 171 contact departure.
JB 171: Over to departure, JetBlue 171, awesome job

On the tape, the boy speaks only to planes on the ground awaiting takeoff and then clearly at the direction of the adult on duty, but experts say the boy’s mere presence in the control tower represents an inappropriate distraction and a security breach.

At the time though, the pilots and controller seem more amused than alarmed.

Controller: Cactus 14, Kennedy following an RJ, wind 310 at 15, 31 R cleared to land.
Son: Contact departure, adios amigos.
JB 195: Adios amigos, over to departure JetBlue 195.

Even people who are sympathetic with the childcare needs of a working parent are baffled by the judgment of this air controller.

“That’s scary for everybody. You can’t do that. That’s risking a lot of people’s lives,” said JFK air passenger Shamir Ali. .

The child is heard communicating with multiple pilots on an active runway at one of the nation’s busiest airports. Though some of the pilots seem to be impressed, FAA officials are not, saying in a written statement:

“Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic. This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”

A German reptile collector has been jailed for 14 weeks and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine for plundering New Zealand’s wild gecko and skink populations, a judge has ruled.

Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, is to be deported to Germany as soon as he is released from prison, Judge Colin Doherty ordered Tuesday.

Kubus was caught by wildlife officials at Christchurch International Airport on South Island in December, about to board an overseas flight with 44 geckos and skinks in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear.

He admitted trading in exploited species without a permit and hunting absolutely protected wildlife without authority, pleading guilty to two charges under the Wildlife Act and five under the Trade in Endangered Species Act.

Department of Conservation prosecutor Mike Bodie told Christchurch District Court that Kubus could have faced potential maximum penalties of 500,000 dollars and six months in prison.

Bodie told Doherty that the department sought a deterrent sentence for “the most serious case of its kind detected in New Zealand for a decade or more.”

The geckos may have been worth 2,000 euros ($2,800) each on the European market, he noted.

“Internationally, this type of trade is prevalent and is on the increase worldwide and can be lucrative,” he said.

Customs records showed that Kubus had also been to New Zealand in 2001, 2004, 2008, and 2009. In 2008, he had been with a Swiss reptile dealer.

Doherty said Kubus had come to New Zealand and set about poaching the animals in a premeditated way which would have had an impact on particular colonies.

There was a potential for Kubus to end up with far more animals than he could have housed in his own collection and the rest would have been sold.

“I don’t think you necessarily came here to steal to sell, but I am sure the fact that you might have had excess was figured into your thinking,” said the judge, describing the offending as “pretty close to the worst case.”

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for “oral sex”.

Merriam Webster’s 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the “sexually graphic” entry is “just not age appropriate”, according to the area’s local paper.

The dictionary’s online definition of the term is “oral stimulation of the genitals”. “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.

While some parents have praised the move – “[it's] a prestigious dictionary that’s used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern,” said Randy Freeman – others have raised concerns. “It is not such a bad thing for a kid to have the wherewithal to go and look up a word he may have even heard on the playground,” father Jason Rogers told local press. “You have to draw the line somewhere. What are they going to do next, pull encyclopaedias because they list parts of the human anatomy like the penis and vagina?”

A panel is now reviewing whether the Menifee ban will be made permanent. The Merriam Webster dictionary joins an illustrious set of books that have been banned or challenged in the US, including Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, which last year was suspended from and then reinstated to the curriculum at a Michigan school after complaints from parents about its coverage of graphic sex and violence, and titles by Khaled Hosseini and Philip Pullman, included in the American Library Association’s list of books that inspired most complaints last year.

A 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster Avatar in 3D, a doctor says.

The man, identified only by his surname Kuo, started to feel unwell during the screening earlier this month in the northern city of Hsinchu and was taken to hospital.

Mr Kuo, who suffered from hypertension, was unconscious when he arrived at the Nan Men General Hospital and a scan showed that his brain was haemorrhaging, emergency room doctor Peng Chin-chih said today.

“It’s likely that the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms,” the doctor said.

Mr Kuo died 11 days later from the brain haemorrhage, and the China Times newspaper said it was the first death linked to watching James Cameron’s science-fiction epic Avatar.

Film blogging sites have reported complaints of headaches, dizziness, nausea and blurry eyesight from viewers of Avatar and other movies rich in 3D imagery.

(Ed note: This is stellar. The more controversy and wacko crazy ass stories about this motion picture, the better! It’ll propel it even higher into the stratosphere.

Hey remember those old time horror film posters that warned prospective audience members of the shocking dangers of seeing their movie? LOL.)

ROME, Ga. — Planning to drink and drive this New Year’s? A north Georgia funeral home has a deal for you. Between now and noon Thursday, drivers can visit McGuire, Jennings and Miller Funeral Home in Rome to sign a contract stating they plan to drink or take drugs and then drive on New Year’s Eve. If they die in a wreck that day, the funeral home will give them a free burial.

Services included in the package are a casket, grave, limousine and preparation of remains.

Funeral home officials said the program is designed to save lives by making partygoers think twice about drinking and driving.

(Ed Note: Yeah, you know. I think this is kind of wrong even if they are trying to do something right. It’s kind of like how I wasn’t too cool with them parking wrecked cars at the end of the High School parking lot.)

A Japanese gamer has discovered the solution to that perennial problem – girls don’t like geeks. He’s married a character in his favourite Nintendo DS game.

Japanese gamer marries DS characterLove Plus is described as a dating simulation game. Players do their best to attract and then keep one of three women.

The player, identified only by the username Sal9000, fell for Nene Anegasaki – but felt compelled by love to take the relationship one stage further.

Last weekend he married his virtual girlfriend at a Tokyo technology festival, with a real priest officiating – although the wedding is apparently not legally binding.

The bride managed to say “I do” bang on cue, and they shared a kiss. There’s no sign of the bride’s family, though – perhaps they don’t approve?

(Ed note: I don’t think I wanna marry a video game character, but I wouldn’t mind a lil’ private foursome with Pico, Chico, and Coco)

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) – A 39-year-old Southern California man has been arrested for misdemeanor child annoyance after allegedly paying a teenager $31 to spit in his face. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department says Charles Hersel was arrested Wednesday in a sting operation at a mall in Thousand Oaks. He’s free from jail pending a court hearing.

A sheriff’s statement says Westlake High School students claimed Hersel paid them to yell profanities, spit and slap him in the face. Several also claimed he offered them cash to urinate and defecate on him.

A motive wasn’t clear.

Authorities say Hersel contacted some teens through the MySpace social networking site.

Hersel couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. He had no listed phone number in Thousand Oaks.

(Ed note: ‘A motive wasn’t clear.’ Really? REALLY? Nobody has a small inkling of maybe why someone would want such to be done? REALLY? REALLY? Also, what is misdemeanor child annoyance? If anything they should be charged for annoying me! STOP KICKING MY SEAT!!)

Kellogg Company said that due to “a confluence of events” — including flooding at its Bucknell Drive manufacturing facility — Eggo brand frozen waffles will be in short supply for some time to come.

Grocery store inventories, the company said, are expected to remain limited through the first half of 2010.

The Atlanta plant, south of I-20 and west of I-285 near Thornton Road, opened in 1969 when it was owned by Fearn International. Kellogg temporarily halted production in September due to flooding driven by heavy rains, the company said.

Kellogg said the Atlanta facility is back in production. But problems with equipment at the company’s largest waffle bakery in Rossville, Tenn. require extensive repairs and improvements, taking several lines out of operation.

The Eggo shortage is nationwide, the company said.

“We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible,” Kellogg spokesperson Kris Charles said.

Kellogg said that for competitive reasons it doesn’t disclose the number of employees at the Bucknell Drive plant, or the number or variety of waffles it produces annually.

A Pennsylvania history buff who recreates firearms from old wars accidentally fired a 2-pound cannonball through the wall of his neighbor’s home in Uniontown, Pa.

William Maser, 54, fired a cannonball Wednesday evening outside his home in Georges Township that ricocheted and hit a house 400 yards away. The cannonball, about two inches in diameter, smashed through a window and a wall before landing in a closet. Authorities said nobody was hurt.

State police charged Maser with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

No one answered the phone Friday at Maser’s home. He told WPXI-TV that recreating 19th-century cannons is a longtime hobby. He said he is sorry and he will stop shooting them on his property, about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

A jury this morning found John William Moyer guilty of groping of a woman playing Minnie Mouse at Walt Disney World.

Moyer, 60, of Pennsylvania, was convicted of misdemeanor battery for the June incident this morning.

Judge Wayne Shoemaker imposed the sentence this morning.

“The verdict reinforces the fact that this type of behavior is not acceptable,” said Walt Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez. Disney officials also banned Moyer from entering any of the company’s resorts, Suarez said.

According to the sentence, Moyer has to write a letter of apology to the victim, Brittney Duncan McGoldrick. He also is under supervised probation for 180 days, must complete 50 hours of community service within four months, pay $1,000 in court costs and submit to a mental evaluation with treatment, if necessary.

Before sentencing, Moyer’s adult son spoke on his behalf.

“He’s a good man,” Emory Moyer said. “He’s a nice guy.”

Emory Moyer also described his father as a man who would never touch a woman inappropriately.

Later, Moyer spoke briefly to the judge.

“I am innocent, I am not guilty of the crimes that I’ve been charged with,” Moyer said.

Moyer has no criminal history and has never received a speeding ticket, he said. This was his first offense.

McGoldrick told prosecutors at the Orange County Courthouse on Monday she had pushed Moyer away from her after the incident.

“My first reaction I just pushed him down. I was doing everything I could to get his hands off my breasts,” Duncan McGoldrick said.

Jurors began their deliberations Monday afternoon.

“We’re just hoping for the only fair and just verdict in this case, which is ‘not guilty’,” said Zahra S. Umansky, Moyer’s attorney.

Moyer had been booked into Orange County Jail on June 7 and was released on $1,000 bail.

KODINJI, India, Aug X (Reuters Life!) – Walk around Kodinji village and you’ll think that you have double vision.

The village is home to as many as 230 sets of twins. Nobody knows why there are so many twins in the village of 15,000 people, although one local doctor suspects it might be due to the water.

In fact with about 35-45 twins per live birth, this village in North Kerala, India, has four times more twins than normal. Not surprisingly, the village has been dubbed “the twin village.”

The latest official estimates by the Kodinji’s Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), which conducted door-to-door surveys at the start of the year, found that there were 204 sets of twins.

Based on births since the survey was conducted, there are probably now around 230 sets of twins in the village, locals said. That number is set to rise as there are five women pregnant with twins.

“It’s an amazing phenomenon to see a medical marvel occurring in such a localized place where the people are not exposed to any kinds of harmful drugs or harmful chemicals. It’s a virgin village,” said Dr Sribiju, a researcher.

Pathummakutty and Kunhipathutty, 65, are the oldest surviving twins in the village. The youngest are Rifa Ayesha and Ritha Ayesha, born on June 10. Their proud parents already see a slight difference between them as one lies fast asleep, while the other kicks away with a mischievous grin on her face.

Being a twin is not always easy. Pathummakutty, who like many in the village have a single name, recalls how her family struggled financially when she was a child. But she also remember good times such as laughter after yet another mix up with her twin sister.

It is not uncommon to run into an identical twin while walking down the hilly roads of Kodinji and there are many tales of teachers getting mixed up between twin students.

At the local school, 15-year-old Salmabi said teachers often confused her for her twin sister and she was once reprimanded for something that her twin did.

“It happens all the time,” the students pipe in a chorus.

Scientists are still trying to uncover the mystery of why there are so many twins in the village.

“Based on scientific facts, we feel something in the environment is causing this. It could be something in the water,” said a local doctor, M.K. Sribiju.

“All the world over the cause of twins is mainly because of drugs. Everywhere in the Western world, people are exposed to fertility drugs, their food habits, they consume more dairy products. Everywhere the age of marriage is increasing. There are late marriages predisposed to occurrence of twins,” he said.

However in Kodinji, most marriages are between people aged 18 to 20 years old.

“All the factors leading to the occurrence of twinning world wide, we cannot see it here. There is something unknown that is causing this phenomenon,” he said.

The locals also believe it is to do with the water. Kodinji is surrounded by water in the fields and during the monsoon season it becomes inaccessible from heavy rains.

As scientists try to find the reason for the large numbers of twins in the village, the parents are busy trying to tell their children apart. It doesn’t help that many of the twins have similar names and often wear similar clothes.

While parents light-heartedly point out that their twins even seem to fall sick together, not all traits are shared. Identical twins Anu and Abhi prefer different film stars and one of the boys likes to play cricket, while the other prefers kicking a soccer ball.

With all the attention being showered on the twins of Kodinji, Ajmer, a 12-year-old school boy, feels like the odd one out in a village where being a twin is trendy.

TOKYO (AP) – Her uniform looks good, with striped scarf and blue cap in perfect order, but railway employee Mitsue Endo has one thing to do before she faces the masses—pass the smile test.

Endo, who works at hectic Shinagawa Station in central Tokyo for Keihin Express Railway Co., sits in front of a laptop computer with a digital camera mounted on top. At first she is a bit grim-faced, and the verdict from the company’s smile-rating software is instant and candid.

“Smile: 0″ pops up on the screen.

She breaks into a broad grin and the computer responds cheerfully, giving her a score of 70.

The company has installed the system to help employees check their smiles before heading out to face customers. The test is optional, but at major stations like Shinagawa, the 250,000 riders who pass through per day can be rushed and agitated, and a happy face can go a long way.

“Smiling helps our interaction with the passengers. I think the atmosphere becomes more relaxing with a smile,” says Endo, whose job includes helping lost customers find their way and dealing with ticketing mishaps.

Keihin uses the software at 15 of its 72 stations, concentrating on the busier locations.

Taichi Takahashi, who works in public relations at the train operator, says it gives employees a chance to examine themselves before they go to work.

“I don’t think that we have had much opportunity to stare at our faces that close and for that long to check our facial expressions until now,” he said.

Love Land had not opened its doors yet, but authorities in the city of Chongqing — a sprawling metropolis on the banks of the Yangtze River — got all hot and bothered over the park’s plans to display naked human sculptures, giant replica genitals and a photo gallery on the history of sex, the state-run China Daily reported.

Lu Xiaoqing, park manager, told the newspaper he got the idea for building Love Land after a visit to a sex park in Jeju, a popular destination in South Korea.

Love Land would include sex-technique workshops and sex education to help adults “enjoy a harmonious sex life,” Lu said.

“Sex is a taboo subject in China, but people really need to have more access to information about it,” he told the newspaper. “We are building the park for the good of the public.”

Whatever Lu’s intentions, the newspaper said Chinese officials saw it another way: “vulgar, ill-minded and misleading.”

The park was to open in October but was demolished over the weekend — thongs, replicas of derrieres and all.

Reactions posted on the Internet were varied, according to the China Daily. Some thought sex was best left behind closed doors, while others argued that a real need for sex education existed in China.

“Sex is a matter of privacy. It is not for publicity,” said Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor at Beijing University.

The officials in Chongquing apparently agreed.

A new exhibition featuring preserved dead bodies having sex opened in Berlin on Thursday with critics saying a maverick German anatomist dubbed “Doctor Death” has gone too far this time.

The couple, part of Gunther von Hagens’s exhibition “The Cycle of Life”, is the “low point in his tastelessness”, Michael Braun, culture expert from the conservative CDU party, told AFP.

Von Hagens said his copulating couples show the sexual act in “bracing clarity”.

The exhibits, of four “consenting donors”, are in a separate room accessible only to over-16s.

One couple, because of the process used, “is reminiscent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawing, ‘Coition of a Hemisected Man and Woman (1492)’,” he said in a statement.

The exhibition “offers a deep understanding of the human body, the biology of reproduction, and the nature of sexuality”.

The dead bodies are plasticised, a process invented by Von Hagens involving skinning bodies to display the naked muscles, nerves and tendons underneath, and preserving them with a synthetic resin.

Van Hagens is no stranger to controversy and his many critics accuse him of deliberately shocking people in order to gain publicity, rather than furthering science as he claims.

In 2002 he conducted Britain’s first public autopsy in 170 years despite the risk of arrest.

Three years ago he opened a factory-cum-museum in eastern Germany manufacturing “plastinated” sections of cadavers to supply researchers and medical students and charging visitors to watch the process.

“I am firmly convinced that he just breaks taboos again and again in order to make money,” Kai Wegner, another CDU lawmaker, told AFP. “It is not about medicine or scientific progress. It is marketing and money-making pure and simple.”

It appears to work, with Von Hagens’s touring “Body Worlds” exhibition drawing millions of visitors around the world.

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Sarasota County Deputies have arrested a woman who videotaped herself having sex with two dogs.

Deputies say Caroline Willette videotaped herself having sex with two dogs and watching child pornography with a friend.

The 53-year-old gave a CD with the images to an acquaintance, who turned it over to police. Willette is in Sarasota County Jail and is charged with three counts of possessing child porn.

Willette admitted to detectives that she had sex with the animals in her home and watched young girls perform sex acts on the Internet.

(Ed note: I imagine that’ll be an amusing moment when her fellow inmates finally get around to asking the age old question, “So, what are you in for?”)

A woman from Russia’s Siberian region of Irkutsk has been arrested for killing a friend and then eating part of the corpse, Interfax news agency reported, quoting local investigators.

The incident occurred on March 5 when the two women were drinking together at the suspect’s home and an argument broke out between them.

“Investigators have information to suggest the woman cooked pieces of her murdered friend and ate them,” said an official with the Russian prosecutor’s investigative committee, Vladimir Salovarov.

He added that the perpetrator killed her friend with an axe and that uneaten parts of the victim’s body had been found in a nearby waste bin.

The detained woman had confessed her guilt, Salovarov said.

In a separate case, prosecutors in Russia’s Udmurtiya region said last week they were searching for a man suspected of cannibalism after the mutilated body of a woman was found in the town of Izhevsk, according to the prosecutor’s website.

A Florida man was arrested yesterday after he was spotted fondling and making out with a pair of blow-up dolls in a supermarket parking lot. Shoppers called cops when they spotted George Bartusek, 51, getting busy in the front seat of his 1998 Lincoln Town Car, which was parked directly in front of a Publix store.

According to a police report, witnesses told cops that Bartusek was “performing activity to two different blow up dolls in his vehicle that was consistent with masturbation and other simulated sexual activity.”

He was also spotted “aggressively” kissing the dolls.

When confronted by police, Bartusek said that he was headed to Target to “get some clothes for his dolls.” Bartusek, charged with breach of peace, was wearing shorts with a three-inch opening “in the crotch area.” Of course, he “had no underwear on under the shorts,” noted police.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Computer users doing Google searches during a nearly one-hour period Saturday were greeted with disturbing but erroneous messages that every site turned up in the results might be harmful.

The company blamed the mistake on human error and apologized for any inconvenience caused to users and site owners whose pages were incorrectly labeled.

The glitch occurred between 9:30 a.m. EST and 10:25 a.m. EST, Google Inc. said in an explanation on its company blog. Anyone who did a Google search during that time likely saw the message “This site may harm your computer” accompanying every search result, the company said.

Google said it routinely flags any search results with that message if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously, a practice aimed at protecting its users. It gets its list of suspicious sites from StopBadware.org, a nonprofit project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities who research consumer complaints.

Saturday’s error happened when the latest update to the list was received from StopBadware but was checked in erroneously in such a way that the warning would apply to all URLs, the company said in a statement.

The glitch was caught by on-call staff and the file was quickly fixed, Google said. Since the updates are applied in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing at 9:27 a.m. EST and disappeared no later than 10:25 a.m. EST, with the duration for any particular user approximately 40 minutes, it said.

“We will carefully investigate this incident and put more robust file checks in to prevent it from happening again,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, in the statement.

(Ed note: Well considering what I’ve been posting on shotalicious.org this week, I suppose it wasn’t really a mistake.)

Someone reprogrammed two city construction road signs near the University of Texas early Monday morning in an attempt to warn Austin of an imminent zombie attack.

Messages that typically alert Lamar Boulevard drivers to a detour for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard splashed several warnings like “Caution! Zombies Ahead!” and “Nazi Zombies! Run!!!”

As he drove south on Lamar, traffic controller Bruce Jones saw the first sign flash the Nazi zombies message at 6 a.m. and wheeled his truck around for another look. Then he said he noticed that the second sign, directed at northbound drivers, had also been tampered with.

Jones, who has one of only two keys to the locked access panels on the portable signs, said that the hacker broke into the panels on each sign and bypassed the passwords before leaving five different zombie messages and even changing one of the passwords. Jones said he had to wait until 8 a.m. to call the manufacturing company to figure out how to override the hacker’s work. He speculated that the hacker could be a computer genius from UT.

The biggest safety hazard came from drivers slowing down or stopping their car to take pictures, Jones said.

The hacking occurred within weeks of various articles appearing online with descriptions of how to hack into these road signs — which point out that such an act is illegal.

Dennis Crabill, project manager with the Public Works Department, said the access panels are always locked and are not programmed with the default passwords these sites suggest. Short of having a watchman on duty around the clock, he said there is little more the city can do to prevent such vandalism.

“It’s a pretty childish prank,” he said.

Crabill said he is optimistic that MLK Boulevard will be open to two-way traffic again by this weekend, and the detour will no longer be necessary.

No zombies have been seen in the area, and with any luck, Tuesday night’s cold front killed off any undead with ghoulish plans to invade the city.

NEW YORK (AP) — Looking to beef up your mojo this holiday season?
Burger King Corp. may have just the thing. The home of the Whopper has launched a new men’s body spray called “Flame.” The company describes the spray as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”

The fragrance is on sale at New York City retailer Ricky’s NYC in stores and online for a limited time for $3.99.

Burger King is marketing the product through a Web site featuring a photo of its King character reclining fireside and naked but for an animal fur strategically placed to not offend.

The marketing ploy is the latest in a string of viral ad campaigns by the company. Burger King is also in the midst of its Whopper Virgins campaign that features an taste test with fast-food “virgins” pitting the Whopper against McDonald’s Corp.’s Big Mac.

VERO BEACH, Fla. — A Vero Beach man faces a domestic violence charge after authorities said he assaulted his girlfriend with a cheeseburger. An Indian River County Sheriff’s Office arrest report said a 22-year-old man and his girlfriend got into an argument as they sat in a car in front of their home.

The report said the man would not let the woman out of the vehicle, so she threw his drink out of the car. In response, the man allegedly grabbed her arm and smashed the cheeseburger into her face. The pair got out of the car, and authorities say the man again took the McDonald’s sandwich and put it on her face.

The man was released on $1,000 bond Wednesday.

INDIANTOWN, Florida – Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a man who threw hot sweet potato pie in his girlfriend’s face on Thanksgiving because he didn’t like the food, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

On Thanksgiving, Christopher Ford, 46, went to his home and he asked for something to eat, according to the report.

But Ford was upset with the meal his girlfriend fixed for him and they got into an argument in the kitchen. While arguing, Ford picked up the sweet potato pie his girlfriend had recently removed from the oven and slammed it into her face, according to the report.

Ford ran outside the rear door of the residence when the woman’s three teenagers went into the kitchen to see what the ruckus was and saw their mom with pie on her face, according to the report.

After deputies arrived, the victim was transported to Martin Memorial Hospital South to treat the burns and blisters on her neck from the hot pie, according to the report.

Later that night deputies found and arrested Ford. He was charged with domestic battery and was released on a $5,000 on Friday, said Rhonda Irons, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.

(Ed note: Oh Florida with your nut case news stories. We’ve missed you!)

THE Muslim wedding of a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl has been raided by police.

Cops arrested the Muslim cleric conducting the sick ceremony and the children’s parents in Pakistan’s largest city.

The cleric had not yet begun the ceremony of Mohammad Waseem, seven, and his bride Nishain Karachi, five – which was attended by 100 guests.

Pakistan law forbids marriage below the age of 18 – but some Muslim scholars say it is permissible if the bride and groom have reached puberty.

TV footage showed both children in traditional wedding clothes in the laps of policemen after the raid – the girl with tears running down her cheeks.

The parents said the wedding had been arranged to end an eight-year feud between the two families, according to a report on Express News TV.

Mr Mazhar said he had heard about similar cases in rural areas but “it is shocking to have this right in the centre of the city.”

The parents are due to appear in court tomorrow.

A Pakistan Human Rights Commission official Hina Gillani said the maximum possible punishment for the parents was one month in jail and fine of just over $10

Joe the Plumber is being pursued for a major record deal and could come out with a country album as early as Inauguration Day.

“Joe” — aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, a Holland, Ohio, pipe-and-toilet man — just signed with a Nashville public relations and management firm to handle interview requests and media appearances, as well as create new career opportunities, including a shift out of the plumbing trade into stage and studio performances.

On Tuesday, Wurzelbacher joined country music artist and producer Aaron Tippin to form a new partnership that includes booking-management firm Bobby Roberts and publicity-management concern The Press Office to field the multiple media offers he’s received over the past few weeks.

Among the requests: a possible record deal with a major label, personal appearances and corporate sponsorships. A longtime country music fan, Wurzelbacher can sing and “knocks around on guitar” but is not an accomplished musician or songwriter, according to The Press Office’s Jim Della Croce.

“He’s a complicated guy with a very dynamic personality,” Della Croce told Politico. “He can sing and obviously has a strong political point of view.”

The Press Office, a PR firm based in Nashville, Tenn., represents an eclectic array of other clients including country stars John Anderson and the Gatlin Brothers, quirky folk singer Leon Redbone, NASCAR driver Chase Mattioli and animal repellent firm Liquid Fence. The Bobby Roberts Company reps several of the same acts, in addition to Juice Newton, Merle Haggard and Jon Secada.

Wurzelbacher made his auspicious debut earlier this month when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama appeared in “Joe’s” neighborhood and was buttonholed on his tax plan. The media blitz went into high gear after John McCain talked about Wurzelbacher during the last televised presidential debate.

He has since made an appearance on Fox’s weekend variety show starring former presidential aspirant Mike Huckabee, and this week was showcased by McCain in a series of “Joe the Plumber” events.

The new partnership originated on the set of the “Huckabee” show, where Tippin appeared with his band during the same program.

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam is considering banning small-chested drivers from its roads — a proposal that has provoked widespread disbelief in this nation of slight people.

The Ministry of Health recently recommended that people whose chests measure fewer than 28 inches would be prohibited from driving motorbikes — as would those who are too short or too thin.

The proposal is part of an exhaustive list of new criteria the ministry has come up with to ensure that Vietnam’s drivers are in good health. As news of the plan hit the media this week, Vietnamese expressed incredulity.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Tran Thi Phuong, 38, a Hanoi insurance agent. “It’s absurd.”

“The new proposals are very funny, but many Vietnamese people could become the victim of this joke,” said Le Quang Minh, 31, a Hanoi stockbroker. “Many Vietnamese women have small chests. I have many friends who won’t meet these criteria.”

It was unclear how the ministry established its size guidelines or why it believes that small people make bad drivers. An official there declined to comment.

The average Vietnamese man is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 121 pounds. The average Vietnamese woman is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 103 pounds.

Statistics on average chest size were unavailable.

The draft, which must be approved by the central government to become law, would also prohibit people from driving motorbikes if they suffer from array of health conditions like enlarged livers or sinusitis. The rules would cover the vast majority of Vietnam’s 20 million motorbikes. It would not apply to drivers of cars or trucks.

Motorbikes account for more than 90 percent of the vehicles on Vietnam’s chaotic roads, which are among the world’s most dangerous.

Nearly 13,000 road deaths were recorded last year, and Vietnam has one of the world’s highest rates per 100,000, according to the World Health Organization. The majority of accidents involve motorbikes, which many workers in the nation of 85 million need to do their jobs.

When Nguyen Van Tai, a motorbike taxi driver, heard about the proposal, he immediately had his chest measured. Much to his relief, Tai beat the chest limit by 3 inches.

“A lot of people in my home village are small,” said Tai, 46. “Many in my generation were poor and suffered from malnutrition. And now the Ministry of Health wants to stop us from driving to work.”

Vietnamese bloggers have been poking fun at the plan, envisioning traffic police with tape measures eagerly pulling over female drivers to measure their chests.

“From now on, padded bras will be best-sellers,” said Bo Cu Hung, a popular Ho Chi Minh City blogger.

Newspapers were inundated with letters on Tuesday from concerned readers who worried that they wouldn’t measure up.

“I’m not heavy enough, what am I going to do?” Le Thu Huong asked in a letter to the Tuoi Tre newspaper. “And what about people whose chests are small? Most of them are too poor to afford breast implants!”

THOMAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Police say a Michigan man has been arrested after “receiving sexual favors from a vacuum” at a car wash.

The Saginaw News reports the 29-year-old Swan Creek Township man was arrested Thursday in Saginaw County’s Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

Police Sgt. Gary Breidinger says a resident called to report suspicious activity at the car wash about 6:45 a.m. An officer approached on foot and caught the man in the act.

The suspect, whose name wasn’t immediately released, is being held in the Saginaw County Jail.

WASHINGTON — People calling a federal phone number to order duck stamps are instead greeted by a phone-sex line, due to a printing error the government says would be too expensive to correct.

The carrier card for the duck stamp transposes two numbers, so instead of listing 1-800-782-6724, it lists 1-800-872-6724. The first number spells out 1-800-STAMP24, while the second number spells out 1-800-TRAMP24.

People calling that second number are welcomed by “Intimate Connections” and enticed by a husky female voice to “talk only to the girls that turn you on,” for $1.99 a minute.

Duck stamps, which cost $15 a piece, are required to hunt migratory waterfowl. The government uses nearly all the revenue to purchase waterfowl habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. In 2006-2007, the latest figures available, duck stamp purchases brought in nearly $22 million.

This year’s stamps, which feature a pair of northern pintail ducks, went on sale July 1 and are good through June 30 of next year. The error will not be corrected until next year’s duck stamps.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the program, printed about 3.5 million duck stamps attached to cards with the wrong number. An agency spokeswoman, Rachel Levin, said it would cost $300,000 to reprint them.

“I don’t know that it would be worth it to do a reprint,” she said Thursday. “That’s a lot of money we can be using for wildlife conservation. With all of the needs for conservation, it doesn’t make sense to divert money away from an important cause.” For those people who like to dial by letter, the card does include the proper 1-800-STAMP24.

“As best we know, it was a typographical error that was not caught,” Levin said, stressing that the stamps are still valid.

The agency first learned of the mistake a few days ago, when a duck stamp owner informed them about the glitch. Levin said the agency has not received any complaints.

The error, which was first reported Wednesday by Denver TV station KUSA, is limited to self-adhesive versions of the stamps. The moistened version, which is printed in much smaller numbers, does not come with a carrier card.

The government uses a contractor, Ashton Potter Security Printers of Williamsville, N.Y., to print the duck stamps. Levin said she did not know whether the error was made by the government or by the company.

Ashton Potter’s president and chief executive, Barry Switzer, said that the company was provided with the wrong telephone number.

“We reproduced the wrong number correctly,” he said. “We regret this whole situation happened, but we did our job properly.”

A cellphone ringtone that chants “condom, condom!” has been launched in India to promote safe sex and tackle the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The “condom a cappella” has been designed to break down Indians’ reluctance to discuss condom use and to make wearing a condom more acceptable.

Organisers of the campaign, funded by the foundation set up by Microsoft mogul Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, hope the ringtone will become a craze among young Indians.

About 2.5 million people live with HIV in India, said the BBC World Service Trust, the charity behind the ringtone, which was released this month. It can be downloaded at condomcondom.org.

“Ringtones have become such personal statements that a specially created condom ringtone seemed just the right way of combining a practical message with a fun approach,” said Radharani Mitra, creative director of the BBC World Service Trust.

“The idea is to tackle the inhibitions and taboos that can be associated with condoms.”

India is the world’s fastest-growing mobile telephone market with 270 million users according to the latest official figures, up 57 percent in just one year.

Police and firefighters were called to the University of Texas’ Jester Hall to free 26 cheerleaders who had crammed themselves into an elevator.

A group of 14- to 17-year-olds attending Texas Cheer Camp in Austin decided to see how many girls they could squeeze into the elevator around 6 p.m. Tuesday, campus police said.

The elevator successfully descended from the fourth floor to the first, but the doors refused to open.

The panicked girls managed to wiggle a few cell phones free to call for help. But it took about 25 minutes before a repairman was able to fix the door, police said.

“It’s dangerous actually,” said Rhonda Weldon, director of communications for the UT Police Department. “They’re lucky that that’s all that happened.”

One teen fainted and was treated and released from a nearby hospital. Two others were treated at the scene.

“Take the sign seriously,” Ms. Weldon said. “There are signs everywhere: No more than 15 people or 3,000 pounds.”

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Two practical jokers are behind bars for setting their passed-out drinking buddy’s crotch ablaze while boozing in Grover Beach. Matthew Craig Pillers and Jack Brent Nicholas Keiffer pleaded no contest to a felony great bodily injury charge.

Prosecutors say the 22-year-old Pillers, a parolee, was sentenced to two years in prison and the 19-year-old Keiffer got 45 days in San Luis Obispo County jail.

Elliot Tuleja was passed out when the men poured cologne on the man’s groin and set him on fire on Jan. 18. Tuleja had second-degree burns on his testicles.

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster’s, is perhaps “the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape.”

Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track.

Emory University officials say the early morning discovery of a zebra in a campus building was the latest in a history of animal-related pranks.

Someone — officials figure it was students — broke into Seney Hall on the school’s Oxford campus and placed a live zebra on the third floor. Public safety workers found the full-grown animal when they opened the building about 7 a.m., said Dean Stephen Bowen.

Bowen said it was immediately clear this was part of a long-standing tradition of depositing farm and zoo animals on campus.

The last time it happened, however, was in the 1960s when someone placed a cow in the same building.

“It’s been about 50 years, and we hope it’s another 50 years” before it happens again, Bowen said shortly after Newton County animal control officers removed the zebra about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Bowen said it was unlikely the responsible party would be punished.

“We’re not launching a major manhunt” he joked.

Whoever put the zebra in the building made sure it didn’t get hurt.

“They lined up a row of chairs so the animal couldn’t get close to the windows and injure itself,” Bowen said.

No one immediately reported a missing zebra, Bowen said, leading school officials to believe the owner may have been in on the prank.

This is metro Atlanta’s second zebra incident in recent weeks.

(prior zebra story)

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Rescuers reached a cluster of brightly colored helium party balloons floating in the ocean off Brazil’s coast Tuesday but did not find the Roman Catholic priest who had been using them in a bid to set a flight record.

Rev. Adelir Antonio di Carli remained missing after lifting off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday strapped to hundreds of helium-filled ballons in a bid to break a record for the longest time in-flight using party balloons. He was wearing a helmet, aluminum thermal flight suit, water proof coveralls and parachute.

He planned to use the money raised in his attempt to break the 19-hour record to fund a “spiritual” rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, home to Brazil’s largest grain port.

Di Carli was reported missing about eight hours after taking off when he lost contact with port authority officials.

The cluster of yellow, orange, pink and white balloons was seen Tuesday night, floating intact in the sea off Brazil’s southern Santa Catarina state near di Carli’s last contact point, according to a photograph posted on Sao Paulo’s UOL news Web site.

Authorities reached the cluster of balloons late Tuesday but the priest was not there, Globo TV said.

“Given his physical condition and the equipment he was carrying, I would say there is an 80 percent chance that he is still alive,” said Johnny Coelho, commander of the Penha Fire Department, which is searching for the priest.

Di Carli, who has taken jungle survival and mountain climbing courses, was carrying enough drinking water and cereal bars to stay alive for at least five days, Coelho said, suggesting the priest may be adrift in the ocean or resting on a beach or forest-covered mountain along the coast.

The priest, an experienced skydiver, also had a GPS device, satellite phone and buoyant chair with him, Coelho said.

“He last used the phone and GPS on Sunday at 8:45 p.m. to let the Navy know his location,” Coelho said. “We haven’t heard from him since.”

The priest embarked on a similar adventure on Jan. 13, when he used 600 balloons to carry him on a four-hour, 17,390 foot-high voyage from the town of Ampere to neighboring Argentina, where he landed safely.

Noah’s Ark, an exotic animal rescue center in Locust Grove, is used to taking in unusual animals. But they aren’t commonly found grazing along I-75.

Lt. Matt Garrison with the Butts County Sheriff’s Office said he was directing traffic around a broken-down vehicle Tuesday morning when a woman stopped and told him a zebra was near the roadway.

“You mean a zebra like in Africa zebra?” he asked. When she said “yes,” he went to take a look.

“I said, ‘This I’ve got to see,’ but she was right. There was a zebra.:

The state Department of Natural Resources called Noah’s Ark and asked if they could pick up a baby zebra calmly eating grass near exit 201 on the busy interstate, about 10 miles from the Henry County center. Staff members headed out to pick up the cute striped guy.

The zebra looked fine from a distance, but when rescuers got close, they found the young male was severely injured. Their vet said he probably fell from a truck or trailer and then was hit by another vehicle.

The group, which takes in homeless animals and children and has more than 1,000 animals at its center — including lions, tigers and bison — called the Auburn University vet school and made arrangements to have the zebra examined.

“The police kept referring to him as evidence, so we decided to call him ‘Evidence,’ ” said Diane Smith, assistant to the director at Noah’s Ark, which is about 30 miles south of Atlanta. “He’s going to have a permanent home with us.”

They loaded Evidence into their van — after removing most of the seats — and headed to Auburn. Smith said the Auburn vets decided Evidence, estimated to be two to three months old, needed surgery to survive. His pelvis was crushed, and he had nerve damage and a severed urethra, which had to be rerouted.

“The laceration on his rear was about 10 inches across,” said Dr. Huichu Lin, the school’s equine section chief.

Lin acknowledged the Auburn vets don’t see a lot of zebras, so “we treated him like a horse.” She said in addition to the pelvic fracture, the 225-pound baby also had a number of soft tissue and muscle injuries.

The surgery was Wednesday morning, and by Thursday Evidence was walking around and eating. Still, he has a long recovery ahead, Lin said, adding she expects him to stay at the vet school for a week or two.

Officials are still trying to figure out where the little zebra was going and who was hauling him.

Garrison said he didn’t know how long the animal was out there, but a man on Monday reported hitting a mule in the same area. He now wonders if the man may have hit a zebra instead.

“His car was badly damaged — it had to be towed off — but we couldn’t find a carcass, and we didn’t know what a mule would be doing out there anyway,” the sheriff’s lieutenant said.

Melissa Cummings, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said there are no licensed zebra breeders in Georgia, and a license is required to keep one.

“Only one individual is licensed to have a zebra in that area and they claimed to have no knowledge of it,” Cummings said.

She also said no one reported losing a zebra.

Once Evidence is released from the hospital, he will return to Noah’s Ark, which is licensed to have exotic animals, Cummings said. The center houses more than 1,000 homeless animals, and it also is a group home for up to 24 children. The center gets some grants and state money for the children, but most income is from donations and fundraisers.

Officials at the vet school estimated the surgery will cost at least $5,000, plus costs for follow-up. Although Noah’s Ark officials didn’t have the money, they told the vets to operate to save Evidence. Now they hope donations will cover the cost.

Said Smith: “He just has such a tremendous will to live, we couldn’t give up on him.”

Sarah Marshall of Glendora didn’t get a lot of notice. Until about two weeks ago.

That’s when hundreds of billboards started appearing in five cities, including Los Angeles. They proclaimed, in black letters scrawled against a white background: “I’m So Over You, Sarah Marshall,” “You Suck Sarah Marshall,” “My Mother Always Hated You, Sarah Marshall,” and “You Do Look Fat in Those Jeans, Sarah Marshall.”

The billboards are part of a marketing campaign for the comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” from Universal Pictures, about a dumped boyfriend trying to get over his ex.

The animosity toward their fictional namesake has brought the real Sarah Marshalls — who include an advertising student in Texas, a special-education teacher in Connecticut and a high school senior in Glendora — an outpouring of concern.

“They’re everywhere, and they’re so annoying,” said Sarah Marshall the Glendora student, who lives three blocks from one of the billboards. Adults called her parents to ask if she was the target of a hate campaign. “I wish they specified that it’s a movie,” she said.

Ad student Sarah Marshall of Fort Worth, Texas, one of 276 Sarah Marshalls on Facebook, said: “I got a lot of e-mails and phone calls asking if my boyfriend and I were OK.”

But don’t expect any sympathy cards from the Universal marketing department.

“We wanted people to ask the question ‘Who is Sarah Marshall?’ ” said Adam Fogelson, president of marketing and distribution for Universal Pictures. “And everything we hoped would happen has come to pass.”

The outdoor campaign — which also includes thousands of ads on buses, taxis and bus shelters in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas — will be replaced this weekend by more traditional advertising for the movie.

If that doesn’t draw crowds, Universal can at least count on Sarah Marshalls across the country buying tickets. Said Sarah Marshall Edmond, the 30-year-old special-ed teacher in Connecticut: “I’ll have to see it now.”

(poster)
( Related Story)
(Official Site)

South Pasadena, Calif. — What the $%#? This community on the edge of Los Angeles has become a cuss-free zone.

So if you’re headed to South Pasadena this week, be sure to turn down the volume on that Snoop Dogg CD, and, if the little old lady from Pasadena cuts you off in traffic, don’t even think about flipping her the bird.

Not that police will slap cuffs on you and haul your sorry, er, butt off to jail. But you could be shamed into better behavior by the unsettling glares of residents who take their reputation for civility seriously.

“That’s one of the purposes of this,” Mayor Michael Cacciotti said of the proclamation designating the first week of March as No Cussing Week, passed by the City Council. “It provides us a reminder to be more civil, to elevate the level of discourse.”

The proclamation will be in effect for the first week of every March.

South Pasadena isn’t the first to try to rein in potty mouths. What’s different about the latest push to stop saying in public the words that Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton recently discovered we still can’t say on television is that it was proposed by a 14-year-old boy.

“My mom and dad always taught me good morals, good values, and not cussing was one of them,” said McKay Hatch, who founded South Pasadena High School’s No Cussing Club in June.

A BOY can reportedly only communicate by ‘chirping’ – after living his life in a virtual aviary.

According to reports from Russia, the 7-year-old ‘bird boy’ has spent his life in a flat filled with bird cages with a mum who treated him like one of her pets.

Pravda said the boy’s 31-year-old mum did not talk him and treated him like a bird, forcing him to learn avian language.

Social worker Galina Volskaya said shocked authorities discovered the boy in a two-bedroom apartment with bird mess littering the floor.

Volskaya said: “When you start talking to him, he chirps.”

And she added that the boy becomes frustrated at not being able to communicate and flaps his arms.

Pravda reported that authorities believe the boy is suffering from Mowgli syndrome, after the Jungle Book character who is raised by wild animals.

The boy has reportedly been released by authorities and put in a medical facility.

TOKYO – A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl’s uniform and a long wig, local police said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tetsunori Nanpei told police he had bought the uniform over the Internet and put it on to take a stroll near the school in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday, the daily Asahi Shimbun said.

When students standing outside the gates started to scream at the sight of him, he dashed inside the school grounds, hoping to blend in with the crowds of teenagers, the paper said.

They also screamed, forcing the man to flee, losing his wig in the process. A school clerk pursued him and stopped him at a nearby riverbank, the paper said.

Police confirmed the arrest of the man in school uniform and wig but declined to give further details.