WORLD NEWS ... A LA MODE

Girl, 19, dressed as boy to seduce female friends

January 18, 2012

The case eerily echoes the plot of the film Boys Dont Cry, in which Hilary Swanks character posed as a boy to date girls. Picture: SuppliedRelated Gemma Barkers friends thought they were dating two nice teenage boys, Aaron and Connor.They werent.Because Aaron and Connor were the same person. And that person was Gemma.A British court has just ruled on the bizarre and chilling case in which 19-year-old Barker cut her hair, cross-dressed and assumed the false identities to trick her younger friends into having...
Read More »

‘I had flag up my bum for Queen’

January 17, 2012

Liam Warriner has detailed how he exposed his buttocks to the Queen during her visit to Brisbane. Picture: The Courier-Mail POLICE have decided to drop a wilful exposure charge against the man accused of “mooning” the Queen during her visit to Brisbane last year. Liam Lloyd Warriner, 22, from Sydney was not in the Brisbane Magistrates Court today for a mention of the exposure and public nuisance charges against him. His lawyer John Paul Mould said his client wanted an adjournment because he feared...
Read More »

Penis Tattoo Blamed for Permanent Erection

January 17, 2012

The day after: Tattoo regret is common and is creating a large demand for tattoo-removal technologies. CREDIT: Maxfx |Dreamstime.com A 21-year-old Iranian man now suffers from a permanent erection after getting a tattoo on his penis, according to a report of his case. The man had the Persian phrase “borow be salaamat,” meaning “good luck with your journeys,” tattooed on his penis. He also had the letter M, the first letter of his girlfriend’s first name, tattooed on it, according to the report. His...
Read More »

Sheep shearing pitched as Olympic sport

January 17, 2012

Sheep shearing could be the next big Olympic sport, according to a New Zealand farming lobby group. Federated Farmers thinks shearing has the potential to become a demonstration sport at the Commonwealth Games, or even the Olympics. The group’s meat and fibre chairwoman Jeanette Maxwell says shearing requires both skill and physical effort. Newly-crowned world record shearers Ivan Scott and Kerri-Jo Te Huia demonstrate the sport’s athletic prowess, she said. ‘People like Ivan Scott, Kerri-Jo Te Huia and our world championships team are athletes...
Read More »

Woman rubs her bottom over $30m painting

January 16, 2012

A WOMAN dropped her pants at a museum and rubbed her rear end all over a painting valued at $30 million, according to police. Carmen Tisch, 36, was arrested after scratching, punching and, well, rubbing her butt against Clyfford Still’s “1957-J no.2″ and causing an estimated $10,000 damage to the artwork at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. Police believe she was drunk during the late December incident. “You have to wonder where her friends were,” a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office told...
Read More »

Man used skeleton to drive in carpool lane

January 10, 2012

A US man has been fined for driving in a carpool lane with a skeleton in the passenger seat. Bryan Stime was pulled over by a Washington state patrolman on December 20 for alleged aggressive driving when police discovered the green skeleton in a white sweatshirt seating in the passenger seat, television station King 5 reports. Stime admitted breaking the rules but told the station that he used the skeleton because he travelled 72km each way to get to work. “Since my commute was...
Read More »

Student Andrzej Sobiepan puts own painting in Poland’s National Museum in Wroclaw

January 8, 2012

THE director of a major Polish museum says it was a “witty artistic happening” when an art student secretly hung his own painting in the museum as part of a campaign to open up galleries to young artists. Director of the National Museum in Wroclaw, Mariusz Hermansdorfer, said he treated the campaign as a joke and has kept the painting on display – in the museum’s cafe. It will be offered for sale at a charity auction. Last month, Wroclaw Fine Arts Academy student...
Read More »

Ad banned because judge says kitty litter sniffing ‘highly implausible’

January 8, 2012

A kitty litter company has been stopped from airing an ad about its performance in a “smell test”. Picture: File Source: Supplied A NEW York federal judge has ordered a pet product company to stop airing a cat litter commercial that unfairly seeks supremacy over a competitor. The Clorox ad was aimed at Church & Dwight Co Inc’s Arm & Hammer brands of cat litter. It claimed a smell test involving a jar proves Clorox’s Fresh Step cat litter outperforms Church & Dwight’s products. The judge found...
Read More »

Missing wedding ring found on carrot 16 years after it was lost

January 4, 2012

A WOMAN has miraculously found her white gold wedding ring on a carrot in her garden – 16 years after it disappeared. Lena Paahlsson of Sweden took the white gold ring off while baking with her daughters during Christmas 1995, but it vanished from the kitchen counter where she had put it. The family searched everywhere for the missing ring, even pulling up floorboards at their farm in northern Sweden to try and find it. Paahlsson had given up hope of finding it until...
Read More »

Human Barbie gets daughter Poppy, 7, liposuction voucher for Christmas

January 4, 2012

Appropriate? Sarah Burge has given her daughter a £7,000 liposuction voucher for Christmas

Mummy, just what I always wanted! Girl, 7, gets £7,000 liposuction voucher for Christmas from ‘Human Barbie’ mum By SADIE WHITELOCKS A seven-year-old who received a voucher for a boob job on her last birthday has received yet another inappropriate gift from her surgery-obsessed mother: A £7,000 voucher for liposuction. Little Poppy Burge received the gift in her Christmas stocking after her mother, a 51-year-old plastic surgery addict known as The Human Barbie, decided it would ‘come in handy’. ‘I put the voucher in her...
Read More »

Death of the point-and-shoot? Smartphone cameras now take 27 per cent of photos

December 26, 2011

Close up photo of a female tourist taking photos of a beautiful beach in The Bahamas with her iPhone 4 camera

By ROB WAUGH Pundits have been predicting the death of slim point-and-shoot cameras for years, as smartphones eat into their market, and camera makers increasingly move towards SLR and other larger-lensed models. But recent U.S. data from retail analysts NPD hints that the writing really is on the wall for slim cameras. The percentage of photos taken on smartphones such as Apple iPhone has gone from 17 per cent last year to 27 per cent this year, as their cameras increasingly match the performance of...
Read More »

Bracelet reveals amazing craftsman’s skill from 7500BC (so good it couldn’t be bettered today)

December 26, 2011

Polished skills: The obsidian bracelet contains remarkable detail

A 9,500-year-old bracelet has been analysed using the very latest computers – and the results show that it is so intricate even today’s craftsmen would struggle to improve it. Researchers from the Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes in Istanbul and Laboratoire de Tribologie et de Dynamiques des Systèmes studied the bracelet’s surface and its micro-topographic features revealing the astounding technical expertise of the maker. The bracelet is obsidian – which means it’s made from volcanic glass – and the researchers analysis of it sheds new...
Read More »

‘World’s oldest’ yoga teacher a spritely 91-years-old

December 23, 2011

Bernice Bates, 91, is the world's oldest yoga teacher, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Picture: AP

BERNICE Bates is 91 years old and more flexible than people a third of her age. Guinness World Records recently awarded her title of Oldest Yoga Teacher. While there might be other, older yogis, Ms Bates, completed the lengthy documentation process required by Guinness. Her daughter nominated her earlier this year. Ms Bates first began practising yoga 50 years ago after she saw it on a television program. These days the great-grandmother teaches once a week at the community centre of her...
Read More »

Gameshow hosts eat each other’s flesh on TV

December 20, 2011

The host looks at his friend as he samples his flesh

Two Dutch television hosts appear to have eaten a piece of each other’s flesh before a live studio audience. Proefkonijnen, translated as Test Rabbits, presenters Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno were filmed having their flesh surgically removed and prepared by a top chef so they could sample the meat on their show, which is based on unusual experiments. They have previously tried to answer questions such as “Can you shave with ketchup?” and “Can you drive blind?” on the show broadcast on BNN. “Nothing is...
Read More »

Spanish village of Juzcar votes to stay blue after being painted for The Smurfs in 3D film to stay tourist attraction

December 20, 2011

Decided to stay Smurf blue … The Spanish village of Juzcar has become the mecca for Smurf fans after the success of the animated movie.. (AP Photo/Sergio Torres) THE inhabitants of a Spanish village which was painted entirely blue for the filming of box-office smash hit The Smurfs movie voted to keep their houses a vivid shade of azure, instead of returning to traditional white. The 221 residents of Juzcar, in southern Spain, were promised by Sony Pictures six months ago that their homes...
Read More »

Aboriginal community Yarrabah crowns new king, the only traditionally-recognised monarch in Australia

December 17, 2011

The coronation: Jabaan is crowned King of Yarrabah. Pictures: Stewart McLean. Source: The Cairns Post

AUSTRALIA’s sole king rules a rich, fertile land of 158 sq km bounded by turquoise seas and white sand beaches dotted with palm trees. Honouring the past, embracing the future, he’s a very 21st century king. Yarrabah’s first monarch for almost 20 years has identified cultural awareness, respect for elders and tackling illegal poaching as his priorities, alongside a plan to boost tourist numbers. King Vincent Jabaan Shreiber of the Gunggandj tribe of the Guru-Gulu clan is the fifth generation of his family to...
Read More »