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Freak Thunderbolt Kills Over 300 Reindeer in Norway
In perhaps the most frightening display of caribou collapse to date, 323 unsuspecting reindeer were fatally struck by lightning on the mountain plateau of Hardangervidda in Oslo, Norway, last month. Norwegian officials surmised a freak storm discharged an inordinately large thunderbolt that interacted with earth and water, resulting in roasted reindeer ruin. Anton Krag, zoologist…
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Robotic Rembrandt Unveiled in Amsterdam
Recently an amazing image was unveiled in Amsterdam. The ‘painting’, which was created by data analysts and computer geeks, is titled “the next Rembrandt”. It has been described by some as ‘nice’ but our European correspondent Greg Beers was very impressed. He sent us an enthusiastic message saying “it’s a ripper of a rendering of…
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Alcohol Lessons for Adolescence
In the Italian parliament this week a bill was proposed and a plan debated. This could be a news story in itself considering the reputation of this notoriously lazy bunch of pollies. However the story continues, as the bill is about teaching children as young as six lessons about wine. The proposal centres around schools…
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Starbucks – The Expresso Fights Back
A big barristic brouhaha is brewing in Italy, Europe’s spiritual home of coffee. The American company Starbucks is set to go boldly where no US based coffee chain has gone before. Next year they intend to open stores in Italy. Starbucks Corporation was established in 1971 in Seattle, USA. It is considered by some as…
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A Probe into the World of Greco-Roman Sex
A naughty bathroom secret. A deep longing to do lecherous things to someone or something that perhaps you shouldn’t (or should you?). Such wanton behaviour can provide a fascinating insight into the carnal cosmos, as Vicki Leon recently discovered upon peering into the ancient window of Greco-Roman sex. The 70-year-old author, who says she wished…
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France Discharges Rotten Egg Smell onto England
Ever since William the Conqueror became king of England in 1066, France and England have had a rather pungent loathing of each other. However, while often diluted, such malodour has exploded into putrid abhorrence after a major French gas leak projected a rotten egg smell onto the chip-loving nation, tainting thousands and causing a major…
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Cosmic Energy and Kung Fu Nuns Collide at CERN
What do martial art wielding nuns and CERN scientists have in common? Well, according to Gyalwang Drukpa, a Tibetan monk ranked second in Buddhist hierarchy only to the Dalai Lama, both delve into the secrets of cosmic energy. Just lust week Drukpa led a dozen nuns from an Asian Buddhist order to display “hand-chops, high-kicks…
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Scottish Dialect Vanishes On Black Isle
Life blooms and withers, making way for breath anew. And so it is in a far northern Scottish town on the tip of the country’s Black Isle, where a Scottish dialect once full of vigor has waned and vanished. In the fishing village of Cromarty, 280 kilometres north of Edinburgh, the traditional North Northern Scots…
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Divers Revisit Antikythera Mechanism Wreck
Over 2000 years ago, a Roman vessel ladened with stolen Greek treasure sank near the Greek island of Antikythera. Many years later, in 1900, sponge divers hauled up a piece of the cargo now known as the Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known computer in the world. At first scientists discarded the find as a sea…
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Science Gives Spain’s Wine Cork Industry Seal of Approval
While many have welcomed the convenience of screw top wine bottles, their popularity has tarnished Spain’s wine cork industry, and the cork cutters that depend on their seasoned seal’s survival. For three generations Antonio Gorgot’s family have lugged axes into the Spanish mountains, slicing bark off carefully selected oak trees to provide the perfect palliative…
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Search for the Holy Grail Leads Cryptographer to Iceland
The search for the Holy Grail, which is associated with Christ’s Last Supper, legends of the Holy Chalice, the Knights Templar, and special powers, has continued ceaselessly throughout the ages. Code breakers, archaeologists, hopeless romantics and crazed historians have wrestled with the elements and devoted years of painstaking footslog in search of this mystical legend.…
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Funtik The Psychic Pig Disturbed By Topless Feminist
With the 2010 World Cup there was Paul the English octopus. Now, with Euro 2012, there’s Nelly the German elephant, Ya Ya the Polish dolphin, Nicholas the English llama, Yvonne the German cow, Maya the Spanish otter and Funtik the Ukraine pig. However, unlike his football forecasting friends, Funtik recently had a Ukranian woman burst…
