Woman Passes Driver's Test On 950th Try



A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time.
The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.
Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.
Police said Cha took the test hundreds of times, but had no specific total. Local media said she took the test 950 times.
Now she must pass a driving test before getting her license, Choi said.
Repeated calls to Cha seeking comment went unanswered. She told the Korea Times newspaper she needed the license for her vegetable-selling business.


That`s called persistence :)

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£82,000 Christmas Bauble



At eighty two thousand pounds, this is the worlds most expensive Christmas bauble that I imagine you would much rather put behind a glass enclosed case than on your tree.
The worlds most expensive Christmas bauble is made out of eighteen karat gold and is surrounded by over one and a half thousand diamonds.
It is enveloped by two outer rings that contain 188 red rubies, and it has taken the better part of this year to create.


There`s i nice peace for your christmas tree

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Brazilian Man Shows Up at His Own Funeral



59-year-old Ademir Jorge Goncalves shocked his family when he showed up at his own funeral service in southern Brazil. After a fatal car crash, local police called in relatives of Goncalves, who identified him and set about arranging funeral services.
What his family didn't know was that Goncalves had taken a detour at a truck stop and stayed up drinking cachaça with his friends. But some family members had doubts from the beginning. His niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper. "My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification. But an aunt and four of his friends identified the body, so what were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral."
A police officer from the town of Santo Antonio da Platina said, "The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing. People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case."
"His mom looked at the body in the casket and thought something was strange. She looked and looked and couldn't believe it was her son," Sampaio said. Before long, the mother's doubts were justified as the son rushed over to the cemetery to let his family know that he was not dead. Sometimes truth is even stranger than fiction!


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I’m allergic to the wife.. honest



HUBBY Darren Young is itching to get on with his love life - but he's allergic to his WIFE.
Darren, 45, risks breaking out in blotches and sending his heart rate haywire if he touches his missus when she is wearing creams and lotions.
His body is likely to swell up alarmingly and his heart could even stop beating if he comes into contact with large enough amounts of a chemical used in many common cosmetics.
Docs discovered the allergy when Darren had a dangerous reaction to a steroid injection in hospital.
He is one of only three recorded cases in the world.
Now he dare not cuddle up to blonde Sue, his wife of four years, unless he is sure she is not wearing any creams containing polyethylene glycol.
Bus driver Darren, of Sprotbrough, South Yorks, joked: "When it comes to bedtime Sue doesn't need a headache as an excuse. She just says she has been using body lotion and it might kill me."
The allergy came to light when Darren was given a jab containing the chemical for a foot problem.
In seconds his face swelled, his 6ft, 16st frame ballooned and his heart stopped and had to be restarted twice.
Since then he has had to study product labels, watch what he touches and carry a special medical kit in case of a reaction.
Besides cosmetics he must beware of certain foods, toothpaste, soap, shaving cream, suntan oil and even air freshener.
The dad of two added: "It's not just Sue - I can get a reaction if I go into a pub or a restaurant where a woman has been sitting. The doctors don't really know why it has suddenly happened."
Clerk Sue, 48, said: "If Darren fancies a bit of nookie and I'm tired I just say, 'Keep your hands off if you know what's good for you'.
Sister Fran Ashworth of Sheffield's Northern General Hospital warned other people may have the allergy and be unaware of it.




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Fellatio keeps male fruit bats keen



Female short-nosed fruit bats have been observed performing fellatio on their partners during copulation. Mating pairs spent more time copulating if the female did so.
Cynopterus sphinx live in south-east Asia. The males often roost with small groups of females.
Min Tan of the Guangdong Entomological Institute in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues captured 30 male and 30 female short-nosed fruit bats in Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou City and observed their mating behaviour in enclosures.
The bats copulate dorso-ventrally, with the male mounting the female from behind. During mating, the females reached over to lick the base of the male's penis in 14 of the 20 pairs that copulated.
he tip of the penis had already penetrated the female's vagina, and the males did not withdraw when the female licked the base of the penis.
Both the duration of an individual copulation, and the overall time a mating pair spent copulating, were increased if the female performed fellatio.


I have nothing else to say but just :D

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Christmas shocker: Rudolph is a girl!



IT'S a scandal which is set to rock Santa's grotto this year.
Scientists in Edinburgh are preparing to expose the closely guarded secret of the world's most famous reindeer – Rudolph is actually Rudolphine.
And while many women may not be surprised by the revelation that Santa turned to the female of the species to solve his present-delivering problems, there is science behind the new discovery.
Professor of biological timings Gerald Lincoln and retired Edinburgh University Professor David Baird will reveal all at a special Christmas talk at the university – Rudolph and a Lamb's Tale – next month.
It will centre on the fact that Rudolph must have been a girl, as only female reindeer still have antlers in the festive season, with males having shed theirs in the middle of the winter.
Prof Lincoln said: "Rudolph classically is this red-nosed reindeer who is around at Christmas. We picture him in the snow with his antlers, but if you get to know anything about nature you discover that things are not quite so straightforward.
"The male reindeer actually cast their antlers before Christmas, so they don't have any antlers at Christmastime.
"They have their mating season in autumn when they use their antlers to fight each other, but once it finishes they cast them in the middle of the winter.
"So you can't picture Rudolph as a big red-nosed macho male because he has cast his antlers already and can't arrive on your doorstep with his antlers on, looking handsome."
Of the 40 different species of deer in the world, only in reindeer do females have antlers. Females cast their antlers in spring, growing them back in time for winter when they need their antlers to compete with other females over holes they dig in the snow to reach lichens and to provide food for their offspring.
Prof Lincoln came up with the bombshell discovery while looking into how female reindeer grow and cast their antlers each year.
But he also discovered another possibility which suggests Rudolph may have been a eunuch, rather than a female.
Prof Lincoln said: "If a male reindeer is castrated it stops the process of casting the antlers in the winter time, and they turn into being more like females. Rudolph could be a castrated male, or a female. I think it's nicest to think that Rudolph was a female!"
The talk will take place at the Queen's Medical Research Institute of Edinburgh University, Little France, on 9 December, from 5.30pm-6.45pm.
Prof Lincoln added: "I just wanted to remind people that it is never quite so straightforward and even females develop weapons when it comes to the real world of seasonal breeding."


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Starkenberger Beer Pool



And here something short but interesting. How does the phrase "Come on in, the Beer is just fine" sounds?

"Another highlight which is featured in your tour is the world’s only ‘beer-swimming-pools’. The pools and the entire room have been decorated by Wernfried Poschusta who is a local artist who is furthermore internationally recognized. There is a total of seven pools who can accomodated four persons each and they are filled with oddments of the beer production, which are very rich in vitamins and calcium, and warm water. Just let us know your prefered temperature. Those bath are very beneficial for dirty skin, open wounds and psoriasis. Additionally such a bath activates the blood circulation and smoothes your skin. The included hops have a calming impact on body and soul."

The beer pool website

A toilet survey

WARSAW (Reuters) - Patrols of two, wearing white overalls, are boldly entering toilets across Poland to check whether the country is loo-ready for the 2012 EURO soccer championships.

Lots of loos pass the test, they say, but others -- particularly those that date back to pre-1989 Communist days -- are less enticing.

The Toaleta2012.pl project, organized by a company manufacturing toilet equipment, aims to encourage ordinary Poles to join the patrols.

The project is looking ahead to 2012 when thousands of fans will come to Poland and Ukraine for the European Soccer Championships.

So far the patrols have visited 200 toilets in Poland's six major cities and have conducted a survey among foreign tourists, which showed hotels and airports provide good quality toilets, while railway and bus stations lag behind.

The Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper commented drily that the country's toilets were, however, still better prepared for the championship than its soccer players -- who failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

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Jail talk



Belgian prisoners to move to Dutch jail

Belgium will send 500 of its prison inmates to Tilburg in the Netherlands, under an agreement reached between the two governments last week. elgium has a serious shortage of prison space - about 2,000 too few places for the number of detainees. The Netherlands, on the other hand, has about the same amount of spare capacity - 14,000 places for 12,000 prisoners. To accommodate the Belgian prisoners, the Dutch will empty the 681-person Tilburg prison, which is close enough to the border to minimise the inconvenience to prisoners' families. Belgium will fill the prison with 500 of its own detainees. The move will only happen once details are sorted out between the Dutch parliament as well as the seven parliaments in Belgium, which is likely to happen by the end of the year. The deal allows a number of Dutch prison guards to keep their jobs. The Dutch government is closing eight prisons across the country, with 12,000 prison officers' jobs at risk, due to a fall in crime. Dutch officers will continue to operate the prison in Tilburg, but Belgian law will apply, and the director will be a Belgian. The federal government here will pay €30 million a year, which works out to about €164 a day for each of the 500 prisoners. The prisoners themselves will be long-term convicts, mainly Dutch-speaking, with none of them on remand or close to release. About 190 are Dutch nationals serving time in Belgian jails, and it's expected that they will be first in line for a transfer. Belgian prison officers' unions have opposed the plan, calling instead for the prison in either Tongeren or Saint Hubert to be re-opened. The ACOD union also proposed renting two Dutch prison boats, which could be moored in Antwerp and staffed by Belgian personnel. "This is cheaper, simpler and could be done quickly," a union representative said. "And it does something for employment here." The situation in Belgium's jails was highlighted last week when it was revealed that Ypres prison currently holds 109 prisoners, despite having a nominal capacity of only 55. Also, Bruges' prison has 751 inmates for a capacity of 632. Throughout the system, the situation of men sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a two-man cell is commonplace. Alternatives are beset with difficulties: while there are 748 offenders now on release under electronic surveillance, the waiting list of those suitable for that programme is now over 1,300. While there are enough ankle-bands to go round, there is a shortage of staff to monitor the system. In 2008, 13 prisoners in the Belgian penitentiary system committed suicide - a phenomenon closely correlated with overcrowding. Also in 2008, the number of escapes went up to 62 from 40 in 2007. Only 49 of the escapees were re-arrested.

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Cast Of Hooligan Film Among 'Wanted' Fans


Paul Anderson

Scotland Yard had a "bad day at the office" when officers included pictures of actors from a hit football film among images of fans wanted after rioting broke out at a match.

The error came about when the Metropolitan Police used a Sky TV report to capture images of fans fighting at a game between West Ham and Millwall.

Police must have been watching with the sound off – because they failed to notice the report included footage from "The Firm", a movie about 1980s football violence.

When the Yard recently issued 66 pictures of people supposedly caught on camera during the Carling Cup clash in August, they mistakenly included stills of six actors from the movie.

Scotland Yard said: "We wish to apologise unreservedly to those affected. We are going to be actively trying to contact those people to offer our apologies."

The film is about a young man who joins a "firm" of thugs.Paul Anderson, who plays sociopathic leader Bex, was one of the actors whose image was issued to journalists.

Vertigo Films, which made the movie, told The Sun: "We are delighted our scenes are so realistic people can't tell the difference between them and real events."Yard insiders described the mix-up as a "bad day at the office" for those responsible.

During the violence in and around West Ham's Upton Park ground on August 25, a 43-year-old Millwall supporter was stabbed. Police have arrested more than 40 people so far.

Something similar happened to me last week. I received a speeding ticket by mistake, so i had to go to the local police station and write a bunch of documents explaining how it was not me driving that car.


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