Balloon Goes Up in South Korea

Balloons released by schoolchildren sparked a major security alert in South Korea, reports say, amid heightened tensions with North Korea.

A resident of Ansan, near Seoul, reported seeing 40-50 objects resembling parachutes falling on a mountainside.

The military and police mobilised a special joint task force.

Upon investigation, the objects turned out to be helium balloons released by a local school.

Tensions between North and South Korea have been running high since the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year. Seoul said the ship was torpedoed by Northern forces.

In another incident earlier this month, an alert was raised after an explosion was heard on Yeonpyeong island, near the sea border with North Korea, and a diving suit was found on a shoreline, the JoongAng newspaper reported.

A joint military and police investigation found that the diving suit was abandoned by a fisherman and that the explosion had been caused by a South Korean mine, the paper said


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Green Green Grass of Home

An English soccer fan has taken the starting of the World Cup perhaps just a little too far. Dan Taylor has transformed his living room into a mini football pitch for the World Cup.

England fan Dan, who's a legal secretary, thinks he used about 100 sq ft of turf but says it only took a couple of hours to lay. "I put some flags up and I put some bunting up but I looked around the room and I just thought something was lacking."

He admits he's not much of a gardener: "The reason I did it was obviously for the World Cup. It was simply a case of just going down the gardening centre and picking up the turf."


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Shoe Shops of the Ancient World

The oldest example of a leather shoe has been discovered by archaeologists in a cave in Armenia.

At 5,500 years old, the well preserved cow-hide shoe pre-dates Stonehenge by 400 years and the Pyramids of Giza by 1,000 years.

It was made of a single piece of leather and was shaped to fit the wearer's foot, the researchers say.

They have published details of the discovery from south-east Armenia in the journal Plos One.

The shoe contained grass, although the archaeologists are uncertain as to whether this was to keep the foot warm or to maintain the shape of the footwear.

The authors are unsure whether it was worn by a man or a woman. The shoe is relatively small, corresponding to a UK women's size 5 (European size 38; US size 7 women), but it could have been worn by a man of that period.

It was discovered at the Areni-1 cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia, which borders on Turkey and Iran.

The archaeologists put the shoe's remarkable preservation down to the stable, cool and dry conditions in the cave and the fact that the floor of the cave was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung.

This layer of excrement acted as a solid seal, preserving it over the millennia.

"We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were in such good condition," said co-author Dr Ron Pinhasi from University College Cork in Ireland.

"It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon laboratories in Oxford and in California that we realised that the shoe was older by a few hundred years than the shoes worn by Oetzi the Iceman."

Other well preserved objects were also found in the cave, including large containers, many of which held wheat and barley, apricots and other edible plants.

Sandals made from plant fibres found at the Arnold Research Cave in Missouri, US, pre-date the shoes from Areni by some 2,000-2,500 years.




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After the lava, Iceland now wants "The Best"

Just when you thought Iceland had been in the news enough, today their elections make the headlines. A party that calls itself "the Best" has won local elections in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.

The Best Party, founded by comedian Jon Gnarr, secured 34.7% of the vote, ahead of the Independence Party's 33.6%.

Its campaign video featured candidates singing to the tune of Tina Turner's "Simply The Best".

Key pledges included "sustainable transparency", free towels at all swimming pools and a new polar bear for the city zoo.

The party also called for a Disneyland at the airport and a "drug-free parliament" by 2020.

As well as specific pledges, its video promised change, a "bright future" and suggested that it was time for a "clean out".

The Best Party was only established six months ago. Its victory means it will hold six seats on the 15-member city council.

Commentators suggest it has benefited from voters' loss of trust in government and the establishment in the wake of the country's banking collapse in 2008.

According to Iceland Review Online, several local races saw parties that were in power ousted in the polls.


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Drunk in charge of a Barbie car

A forty year old Essex (thats in England) man was pulled over by police as he drove an electric Barbie car. Though originally a bright pink Barbie Car, Paul Hatton had added larger wheels on the vehicle for his son, so that it actaully reached a top speed of 4mph.

Speaking after the hearing at Colchester magistrates court, he said: "You have to be a contortionist to get in, and then you can't get out.

"I was very surprised to get done for drink-driving but I was a twit to say the least."

Mr Hutton, was found to be twice the drink-drive limit, he said.

Appearing before magistrates last week, he admitted driving the toy car while drunk.

He was given a mandatory three-year ban because he had received another drink-drive ban within the past ten years.

Magistrates also gave him a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £85 court costs.

Chairman of the bench Neil Munson said: "This is most unusual.

"I have never seen the like of it in 15 years on the bench.

"The vehicle is not even capable of doing the speed of a mobility scooter and could be outrun by a pedestrian.

"Taking this into account, we feel we can impose a sentence of a conditional discharge for a period of 12 months."

The car was confiscated by police until the hearing but Mr Hutton now hopes to get it back.

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The Truth about “Cinco de Mayo”

The Truth about “Cinco de Mayo”

A lot of people will be out celebrating today, drinking beer with limes in the top, shots that include lemon and salt or even supping from a bottle which holds a dead worm. However not many people know the truth about today.

When the Titanic set out on that fateful day in April 1912 amongst the large amount of cargo being carried was the first sample jars from Hellman’s to spread news of the product across into Europe, where Heinz had just launched their “salad cream”. The large create of the new product was dully stored deep in the cargo hold on board the Titanic.

When the boat sank all the samples were thought to have been lost delaying the spread of Hellmans new product into europe. This delay extended by the fact that the scienteist who created the recipee for the new product also went down with the Ttianic.

All was thought to have been lost , then on May 5th 1912 a crate was washed up on a small island just off the coast of Nova Scotia. This caused a huge surge of interest for not only was the create stamped with the fact it had been on the Titanic, but also inside quite unharmed was found many jars of Hellman’s new and thought lost product.

A celebration was held that day which has carried on ever since.
It was called “Sinka de Mayo” in memory of the jars of Hellman’s Mayonase that were thought lost but were returned by the sea.

Well that’s my version anyway

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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"Pussy Galore" as German 'marries' his dying cat

A German man has unofficially married his cat after the animal fell ill and vets told him it might not live much longer, Bild newspaper reports.

It says Uwe Mitzscherlich, 39, paid an actress 300 euros (£260,$395) to officiate at the ceremony, as marrying an animal is illegal in Germany.

Mr Mitzscherlich said he had wanted to tie the knot before his asthmatic cat Cecilia died.

The cat and groom have lived together for 10 years.

"Cecilia is such a trusting creature. We cuddle all the time and she has always slept in my bed," Mr Mitzscherlich, a postman from the eastern town of Possendorf, told Bild.

Actress Christin-Maria Lohri, who officiated the ceremony, was quoted as saying: "At first I thought it was a joke. But for Mr Mitzscherlich it's a dream come true".

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