These scientists have THEIR priorities straight!

Scientists use particle accelerator to date wine

PARIS (Reuters) - French scientists have devised a way of using particle accelerators to authenticate vintage wines, one of France's top research bodies said this week.

The new method tests the age of the glass in wine bottles by analyzing X-rays emitted when the bottles are placed under ion beams produced by a particle accelerator, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement.

"This enables the age of bottles and their origin to be verified and thus a vintage to be authenticated, a bit like the signature of a painter on a masterpiece, all without opening the bottle and without affecting in any way the content," it said.

By comparing the results with a database containing detailed information on 80 bottles from the Bordeaux region from the 19th century to the present day, the tests can help indicate the vintage of many wines.

"Authentication is possible due to the complexity of the processes of glass manufacture which have evolved over time and to the variety of production centers which give each object a characteristic 'signature' made up of many elements," the CNRS said.

Particle accelerators take a particle, such as an electron, speed it up to near the speed of light and smash it into an atom to discover its internal workings.

The new test extends existing radioactivity tests on the actual wine itself, which are currently incapable of identifying vintages prior to 1950.

The test was developed in cooperation with London-based wine dealer The Antique Wine Company.

Screw government jobs!  Nothing could be more fun than my new dream job of being a handler to a multi-ton animal suffering from withdrawl!

Elephant cured of drug addiction

Asian elephants are considered an endangered species

An Asian elephant that became addicted to heroin after being fed bananas spiked with the drug is to return home after undergoing a detox programme.

The four-year-old animal, called Xiguang, received methadone injections for a year at five times the human dosage, state media said.

It was illegally captured by traders in 2005 in south-west China.

When police arrested the traders and freed the elephant, it was found to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms. <!-- E SF -->

The elephant's eyes kept streaming and he made continuous trumpeting noises, the Beijing News newspaper's website reported.

It is thought that the traders fed the elephant bananas laced with heroin to capture and control it.

Xiguang was sent to a wild animal protection centre on Hainan island in south-west China for rehab, the official Xinhua new agency said

He is expected to arrive at a wildlife park in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, on Saturday.

The Asian elephant is an endangered species, with only 25,600-32,750 left in the wild, according to the WWF conservation group.

Pennsylvania Woman With Suspended License Has Son, 13, Drive

Someone deserves a Darwin Award...

The airline seeks bald fliers to use as "cranial billboards"

New Zealand's national airline is looking for bald passengers to head up a new advertising campaign.

The carrier said it wanted 50 passengers to be "cranial billboards" and publicise a new check-in service on their heads.

The fliers will be offered money to have their pates temporarily tattooed with the message.

The airline said it would pay NZ$1,000 (£380; $666) per head, making it easy money for bald frequent fliers.

The airline's marketing manager Steve Bayliss said in a statement: "How better to tell our customers that Air New Zealand is going to do something about [long check-in queues]... than through messaging they can read while they're standing in a queue themselves?"

It is not known what the goats' punishment might have been

A minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered a Kinshasa jail to release a dozen goats, which he said were being held there illegally.

Deputy Justice Minister Claude Nyamugabo said he found the goats just in time during a routine jail visit.

The beasts were due to appear in court, charged with being sold illegally by the roadside.

The minister said many police had serious gaps in their knowledge and they would be sent for retraining.

Mr Nyamugabo was conducting a routine visit to the prison when, he said, he was astonished to discover not only humans, but a herd of goats crammed into a prison cell in the capital.

He has blamed the police for the incident.

It is not clear what will happen to the owners of the goats, who have also been imprisoned.

BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper says that given the grim state of prisons in Congo, the goats will doubtless be relieved about being spared a trial.

There was no word on what their punishment would have been, had they been found guilty.

Postman hoards 20,000 letters in Germany

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A Scottish postman working in Germany hoarded at least 20,000 letters at home because he felt his work was too taxing, police said on Tuesday.

The postman in Frankfurt was caught when a neighbor saw him tipping a mail delivery into a rubbish bin and alerted police.

"It's worth mentioning the 23-year-old didn't deliver mail addressed to himself either," local police said in a statement.

Investigating officers found rubbish bags and boxes full of letters and other post stashed around the man's flat and cellar. He told police he had got behind with deliveries because of his night school studies and felt too "overtaxed" to catch up.

Police said at a conservative estimate, the hoard, which the man had built up since August 2007, comprised at least 20,000 letters. Two vans were needed to remove it.

that guy in California...weird...that same thing happened here in Atlanta not but a few months ago...but the teenager got killed! 

Hallucinogenic chocolates doom Berlin sweet shop

BERLIN (Reuters) - Police closed down a Berlin sweet shop after discovering the owner was selling chocolates and lollipops laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana.

The 23-year old owner of the shop in the trendy east Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, an area known for its vibrant night life, was taken into custody on suspicion of drug-dealing.

"In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless cannabis lollipops," said police, who confiscated around 70 sachets containing various drugs, about 20 marijuana joints, a range of pills and some jars of drug-laced honey.

Police said one customer, who appeared intoxicated, was arrested after trying to buy a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms from an officer in the shop.

Other Israeli towns have taken a less high-tech approach to the problem

Officials in an Israeli city have come up with an innovative way of tracking dog owners who allow their pets to foul the streets - DNA analysis.

Authorities in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, are setting up a special DNA database of local dogs.

They will use the data to match dogs' droppings to owners - and punish those who do not clean up after their pets.

While those who keep the streets clear will be rewarded, owners who fail to scoop the poop could face fines.

"My goal is to get the residents involved and tell them that together, we can make our environment clean," Tika Bar-On, the city's chief veterinarian, told Reuters news agency.

Owners were reacting positively to the six-month trial programme, she told the agency, because they wanted their streets to be clean.

At the moment providing a DNA sample was up to individual dog owners, but the city was considering making it compulsory, she added.

Failure to clear up dog mess is not confined to Petah Tikva. In the UK, some councils have resorted to using CCTV and undercover patrols to identify offenders in particular trouble spots.

Other have given away free bags to encourage owners to pick up after their dogs.

Screw that job...don't you wish you had this one (at least while you could)?

Hotel fires philandering male staff

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A small hotel on Turkey's Mediterranean coast has fired all its male employees for repeatedly having affairs with foreign female guests, the manager said on Wednesday.

Pelin Yucel, manager of Image Hotel in Marmaris, said her 27-room hotel now only employs female staff. Most of the guests are British and Russian tourists, she said.

"We had been facing the same problem every year but after the last incident we decided to run the hotel by only female staff," she told Reuters by phone.

"The last straw was when I saw our bartender, who was a very decent man, walk out of the bathroom with a British tourist," Yucel was quoted in the media as saying.

Around 20 million tourists visited Turkey last year, many of them drawn by its sandy beaches and turquoise waters.

I might have had some of that chocolate....when I was in Berlin or maybe I was high not having to be in IRAQ and was on leave..yeah that is what i think it was .....

Why the hell was there a bull in NYC?  Thats gotta be an interesting story all by itself.

Ok, who opened the gate!

I don't know, I'm from New York and although I'm away now, I've never seen a bull in the streets.  But to tell you the truth, you'll never know what you're going to see in New York!