Ten things which raised an eyebrow this week
EP brings you a brief round-up of some of the news items which were perhaps as surprising as they were enlightening
- "Every little helps" Executives at Tesco have been having a 'hard time' of it of late, after the horse meat scandal there has followed serious questions about the integrity of the business and capability of the executive team in the wake of the Chairman's resignation, a drop in profits of 92% and "Buttermilkgate". Now things aren't any 'softer' for the company as a Tesco-operated ATM in Wales incorrectly translated the English caption for "free cash" to "free erections" for unsuspecting customers!
- Wielding pistols, knives and baseball bats, 14 teenagers were arrested in France this week amid concern that a growing subculture of dressing up as "scary clowns" is taking hold of some young people, encouraged to behave bizarrely and violently by influencers on social media
- Only in America could an ordinance passed by the municipal assembly intended to protect moose from impaling themselves on fences decorated with metal spikes subsequently be vetoed by the Mayor of the same State, because of the nuisance the rule would cause for home-owners
- London has officially taken over from Hong Kong as the World's most expensive city in which to buy a new-build property. At an average cost of £2,000 per square foot, the cost has risen 16% over the last year, while the West End has seen prices rocket 231% over the last 3 decades
- "Relight my fire!" In a win-win move for both countries, incinerator plants in Denmark are increasingly importing & burning waste from British landfills, providing heat and power to homes all over the country and simultaneously alleviating the issue of waste management in the UK
- Having lavished her with such expensive gifts as a sport car, cash, designer clothes and luxury holidays, a 50-year old man in China is now suing his former mistress after the 17-year old rejected his marriage proposal saying she no longer loved him
- With 30 seconds "on the clock" to sink a layup, a free-throw, a three-pointer and a half-court shot, Bryan College student Gustavo Tamayo won $10,000 in University tuition fees when he successfully played "the ultimate basketball challenge" - a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact the young man has never played the sport competitively and had a broken finger at the time
- Forget having things "at the click of your fingers" now it's all about having it at "the flick of your wrist" as Iberia Airlines and Samsung have come together to launch a new smart-watch app, with "wearable boarding pass"
- When a father in America came across a strange "bald spot" in the garden, under his prepubescent daughters' bedroom window he became immediately (rightly) suspicious. Ever protective of the young girls he "monitored" the spot all day until another man appeared with a cinder block and attempted to climb on top to look in the girls bedroom ... needless to say, what ensued included some "choice language" and police involvement!
- "To infinity and beyond!" - or not, as the case may be for Arun Vijayakumar who was outed as a fraudster by the Facebook group Netizen Police". Having become something of a celebrity in his native India following a string of "claims to fame" including (a) that he had met and became friends with the Indian PM (b) that he had worked with internationally acclaimed scientist Barbara Lesko (c) he had become a Doctoral Fellow at MIT after (d) completing his PhD in only a year, the 27 year old was to be undone by the 'galactically implausible' claim that he had been recruited as a research scientist for NASA, telling reporters that the space agency had "relaxed its citizenship requirements after being so impressed by his knowledge and patriotism!"
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