Olympic Ice Sculptures

An ice sculpture show with the theme of Olympic Songfest in Beijing.

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Amazon Fined for Viciously Offering Free Shipping

If I walked to a bookstore then I wouldn't be paying for shipping. Should I pay more for the book when I got there? A strange law.

clipped from technologyexpert.blogspot.com Amazon.com has run afoul of a French law that basically makes free shipping a crime. On Monday it said it will continue to ship books for free in France and take a €1000 (or nearly $1500 at the time of this writing) a day fine. The Lang Law (81-766 August 10, 1981) says that the selling price of books must be indicated by the editor on the cover, and that any retailer is required to sell the work at a price ranging between 95% and 100% of that price. This system is designed to prevent independent booksellers from being forced out of business by large discounters (just look at how many independent booksellers have gone out of business in the United States). Last month a union of French bookstores sued - and won - over the free shipping on orders over €20. The argument was the free shipping effectively lowered the price of books outside of the Lang Law limits. The union was awarded €100,000 and Amazon.com was ordered to start charging for shipping.

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Addicted to the Internet

I think more needs to be done to look into internet addiction.

A study in China showed that about 10% of young people are addicted to the internet.

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Army Rocket Hits House - Owner "Understanding"

Well at least they hit something.

clipped from news.yahoo.com MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military Thursday offered compensation to a homeowner after a small rocket veered off course and hit his country house outside Moscow. A defense ministry official told Reuters two rockets had gone astray during a military exercise near Moscow Wednesday afternoon. One hit the roof of an unoccupied house 3.5 km (2.2 miles) away. "The damage is estimated at 60,000 rubles ($2,466). It will be compensated for in two days," said Yevgeny Konashenkov, spokesman for Russian land troops. "The owner of the house treats the incident with understanding. He has no legal claims."

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Fat Bees Are Clever

That assumes that if there is more nectar the bees are fatter. But if they are more intelligent then they won't overeat. Which means they'll have too much nectar. Which they could sell to the dumb bees. Who don't have any money. But maybe they'll give the dumb bees a loan. Which would be pretty stupid. Oh wait - did I get mixed up with the sub-prime thing?

British researchers have found that more intelligent bees gather greater amounts of nectar.

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Urdu Is Now Easier to Learn - Official

Hey - I would have done much better in math if they'd dropped differential equations - what are they doing about that?

India has decided to made learning Urdu easier - by missing out the hard words.

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Man Arrested for Snake Walking

You can't even take your snake for a walk nowadays!

clipped from news.sky.com An afternoon stroll in Long Island has landed a man in the slammer, because he decided to take his 14-foot python with him. Curtis Dewberry was spotted by an officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals walking down a main road with the reptile wrapped round his body. Dewberry has been charged with animal cruelty and failure to protect the public against dangerous wildlife. The fate of the snake is not yet known.

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It's Official - Clowns Are Scary

So who does like clowns? Their mothers? Who else?

A study in Britain found that children aged 4-16 didn't like clowns. Every single one of the 250 interviewed expressed a dislike.

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Women-only Garage

I wonder what pictures they have on the calendars in the workshop.

A women-only garage has opened in France with the only male employee being the boss. This must have huge opportunity for sexist comments, so I shall take the high ground.

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Angela Merkel Voted Sexiest World Leader

Well, it was a close contest, but Angela Merkel just beat out Nicolas Sarcozy to be voted the sexiest G8 leader. Merkel, the German Chancellor had 28% and Sarcozy, the French President had 24% in our Odds Bodkins! poll.

They were both a long way ahead of third place Gordon Brown of the UK.

Full Results:

Angela Merkel 28%
Nicolas Sarcozy 24%
Gordon Brown 12%
Vladimir Putin 10%
George Bush 6%
Giorgio Napolitano 4%
Stephen Harper 1%

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Mask Festival

Maybe they don't have TVs in Bulgaria.

It was the fifth annual mask festival in Bulgaria with over 1500 people attending.

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Party Dispersed with Helicopter

Sometimes things go sooooo wrong...

An Australian teen is faced with a bill of $18,000 after police had to call in a helicopter to disperse the crowd that had turned up to the party he was having while his parents were away.

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