Gnome poster removed before Medvedev visit?

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Theater posters proclaiming "We await you, merry gnome" were taken down from a Russian town shortly before a visit by the country's diminutive President Dmitry Medvedev, a local website reported on Friday. The advertisements were for a children's theater show, but were removed from a street that the president's convoy was due to use on his visit to Omsk on February 12, the nr2.ru website reports, citing local sources. Russian media say Medvedev is 5 feet, 4 inches tall. The poster depicted a child fairy but was one of a number of sudden renovation projects that took place ahead of the Medvedev's visit, it reported, quoting bloggers and journalists. The authorities recommended that fresh snow should be sprinkled over older dirty snow as part of the facelift, it said.

Cat food latest weapon against Australia's cane toads

A tin of cat food may be the solution to reducing the number of toxic cane toads in Australia, one of the country's major pests which environmentalists have tried for years to stop from killing off the native wildlife. Scientists from the University of Sydney said that putting cat food close to ponds inhabited by baby cane toads attracts carnivorous ants that are also immune to the toads' poisonous skin. The ants then attack the baby toads and eat them. "In one spot we tested, 98 percent of the baby toads were attacked within the first two minutes," researcher Rick Shine told Reuters. "It was a bit like a massacre." Scientist have spent years -- and a significant amount of money -- trying to find ways to get rid of the toxic toad that has plagued Australia's flora and fauna for decades and which is considered one of the country's worse environmental mistakes. The toads, introduced from Hawaii in 1935 in a bid to control native cane beetles, have led to dramatic declines in populations of native snakes, goanna lizards and quolls, a cat-sized marsupial. Shine said the study was aimed at boosting the numbers of ants around the breeding areas of cane toads, and not upsetting the ecological balance by introducing the insects to an area that they wouldn't normally be in. "All we're doing is encouraging the ants to flourish somewhere where they already flourish, letting them know there's particularly good food around so we get more of them down there on a very short-term basis," he said. "Baby toads are incredibly stupid and their reaction to being attacked is to freeze. I think they're trying to advertise the fact they're poisonous and let the predator get a taste of that, but it doesn't work for the ant because it isn't affected." While Shine realizes the study's findings will never eradicate cane toads from Australia, he said cat food was a relatively simple way to try and limit their numbers. "I'm optimistic that we'll find ways to reduce toads numbers, I think I'd have to be a very optimistic person indeed to think we'll ever get rid of cane toads from Australia," he added.

Service at sword point at "Ninja" restaurant

Waitresses wield swords and flare flames at diners, who have to get past a moat before sitting at their table in the dimly lit dining hall. The same customers are also encouraged to take photos with the warrior-like waitresses, who dress in black or red to look like ninjas in keeping with the theme of a dark but lively restaurant that opened last month in Taiwan's capital. "The ninja is mysterious," said Ou Chia-wei, owner of the restaurant simply named Ninja, explaining why he chose that theme for the Japanese-style restaurant. "On that premise, we can do magic tricks and light up the food." Waitresses working the barely lit dining room floor burn specialty menus, which vanish without a trace of ash, and send flames snaking across tables as customers watch. A moat and screen of cascading water just past the front entrance make customers wait a few minutes until the drawbridge goes up, leading to a dark stairwell toward the dining hall. There are professional magic shows, as well as cabarets, for those who walk in at the right times. Ninjas were mercenaries who resorted to unusual warfare strategies such as espionage, sabotage and assassination from as far back as 700 years ago in feudal Japan. They remain a common, enduring theme in Japanese folklore. Ou, who also owns a hospital-theme restaurant in Taipei, and his wife put the three-storey Ninja eatery together on their own without hiring a designer, said his landlady Ting Tsui-lan. The overall investment was T$15 million ($470,000). "The owner had already liked ninjas and figured that would be a pretty obvious, visual theme for the restaurant," said restaurant sales manager Hsiao Dai. Ninja competes with restaurants that specialize in airliner, dinosaur and toilet decor in a city teeming with theme diners. Owned and staffed by Taiwanese, it serves Japanese food priced for office workers who frequent it at its location in a congested part of town. Japanese cuisine and culture are popular in Taiwan, where Ninja has seen steady full-house crowds of 150 since opening in late January. Customers are intrigued by the theme, with a 26-year-old woman saying she might rather work than eat there. "We make friends with the customers," said waitress Tu-tu Lin, laying her sword aside to explain to the woman the tricks of her trade.

Twitter dating for tech-savvy singles

For tech-savvy singles who are unlucky in love, shy or just looking for a new way to meet people, Flitter could be the answer. Hundreds of singles attended the first Flitter parties across the Canada last week in the latest dating game which is a play on words of the microblogging site Twitter and flirting. Each guest wore a white sticker with a number and gazed closely at their iPhones and Blackberrys in a dimly lit room in Toronto, their thumbs tapping away at their mobile devices on Twitter. They were Flittering and trying to catch the attention of other tweeters who were flying solo on the eve of Valentine's Day. "#129, you're so fine, but #152, you're hot too. Man oh man, what will #72 do?" tweeted one guest as the comment showed up on a giant projector screen set up inside the venue. Will Lam, a 27-year old banking professional and Twitter fanatic, attended the event because he was interested in seeing how Flitter worked. "I was just wondering how they would leverage Twitter and facilitate interaction between people," said Lam, who found the tweeting to be awkward and distracting in his attempts to strike up conversations with women. "I actually tweeted #19 was really cute, but I can't even find her anymore," he said. But Halley Trusler, a 23-year old event co-ordinator who recently moved to Toronto, found Flittering to be a great way to meet people. "It allows people who are a little more shy to put themselves out there," she said. Trusler received plenty of tweets offering to buy her drinks and revealed she may have someone in mind by the end of the night. The tweeter can choose to sign off with his, or her, assigned number or send an anonymous message or compliment. The recipient can respond and meet the tweeter if interested, or just read the anonymous compliment and move on. All senders must end the tweet with the word "Flitterme." Justin Parfitt, founder and CEO of Fastlife, the Canadian-based dating service provider, originated Flitter singles events in Australia and introduced them to North America. He thought there must be some way of getting people to interact using work devices, such as their Blackberrys or iPhones, to make people feel social as oppose to anti-social. The Flitter parties, which were also held in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal, were advertised on the Internet.

Give up your iPod for Lent, bishops urge

British church leaders are encouraging people to give up their iPods for Lent, instead of more traditional vices such as chocolate, to help save the planet.

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, and the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, are among those calling for a carbon fast for Lent -- a period ahead of Easter which Christians traditionally consider a time of penance and reflection -- which begins on Wednesday. As well as spending a day without using technology such as mobile phones or iPods, the 46 daily suggestions also include eating by candlelight, cutting meat and vegetables thinner so they cook faster and flushing the toilet less often. "Instead of giving up chocolate for Lent, why not fast for justice ... to help those suffering from the effects of climate change," said Jones.

Police: Man rides on car hood in his underwear

Police expect to file charges against a 57-year-old man who was wearing only underwear in frigid temperatures when he hopped on the hood of his girlfriend's moving car during an argument. Police have yet to identify the man or his 28-year-old girlfriend, saying they'll release the names once they sort out what charges to file.

Police were called about 3:20 a.m. Thursday by someone reporting a man riding on the hood of a car, screaming at the woman driving it. The woman had a bruise under her left eye and police said they found drug paraphernalia in the car. Uniontown is about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh. The region has been hit by heavy snows and overnight temperatures were in the teens on Thursday. Information from: Herald-Standard, http://www.heraldstandard.com/

TT Owonubi....

Saturday, February 20, 2010

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