JAPAN
Sega launches urinal games
An entertainment company has combined men’s obsession with video games with their perennial inability to aim straight to create a range of distractions in selected Tokyo urinals. Sega has installed the “Toylets” in male lavatories at four bars and games arcades in the capital. The games use pressure sensors attached to eye-level LCD screens that test users’ accuracy as they answer the call of nature. The four games include one in which the object is to spray the screen clean of graffiti. Another, Manneken Pis, named after the famous statue in Brussels, measures the volume of the urine stream. Splashing Battle, meanwhile, pits one user against another — though thankfully not directly — by challenging him to produce a more powerful stream than the previous visitor. In the fourth game, The North Wind and the Sun and Me, sensors control a digital wind blowing up a young woman’s skirt. The greater the stream’s intensity, the higher the skirt travels. The games sit (or stand) well with the country’s open attitude to all matters micturition. Children are raised on tales of ghosts who inhabit toilets, perhaps to encourage cleanliness, while girls are encouraged to keep on the good side of the female deity who supposedly resides in domestic WCs.
NEW ZEALAND
Police give up Segways
Police in Taupo have been forced to resume foot patrols after their futuristic Segway scooters were deemed illegal, reports said yesterday. Police had enthusiastically embraced the electric-powered devices, but had to abandon them after finding it was against the law to use them in public areas, national news agency NZPA reported. The local Rotary Club purchased two of the Segways, which were then loaned to police to make it easier for officers to conduct patrols. The two-wheeled scooters, which use gyroscopes and computers to remain upright and can reach speeds of up to 20kph, had proven popular with the community, Inspector Steve Bullock said. “They are a novel vehicle, I would liken them to a modern-day horse because they engender curiosity and people want to talk to you about them, which is what we want as a police organization,” he told NZPA. “We want to be more engaged with our community and be approachable and be a person rather than just a blue shirt.” Bullock said that because there was no separate vehicle classification for Segways, they fell into the same category as cars and had to be registered as roadworthy for use in public areas.
NEW ZEALAND
Villagers aid chopper rescue
A line scrawled by a villager in beach sand helped point airborne searchers to a downed helicopter pilot after his aircraft crashed yesterday into a bay on the northern coast, rescue officials said. The pilot, very cold and suffering “semi-shock,” but otherwise mostly unhurt, was winched from the water by a rescue helicopter two hours after witnesses heard his machine crash in a bay about 30km south of Whangarei Heads, Rescue Coordination Center spokesman Neville Blackmore said.
PHILIPPINES
Sixteen break out of jail
Sixteen inmates broke out of an overcrowded jail by sawing off their cell’s iron bars and climbing down a wall using blankets, authorities said yesterday. The authorities captured one of the fugitives within an hour of the escape on Wednesday night, but 15 others who have been charged with murder, robbery and drug trafficking remain at large, Cotabato Mayor Japal Guiano said.
SPAIN
Hotel is full of garbage
A new hotel has opened in the heart of Madrid proudly declaring that it’s complete rubbish. The walls of the Beach Garbage Hotel are strewn with detritus dragged up by the tide, recovered from landfills or snapped up at flea markets. Among the wall decorations are plastic drums, wooden frames, musical instruments, striped socks, tires, and children’s books. In the five rooms there are streetlights, wobbly sideboards, and torn Persian rugs, ready to welcome the lucky winners of a Facebook competition whose prize was a free stay. Out front, there is a small patch of sand and palm trees. The hotel is the work of German artist Ha Schult. “I created the Beach Garbage Hotel because the oceans of our planet are the biggest garbage dump,” Schult said. Rosa Piqueras, spokeswoman for the project, said the idea was to show something a little different from the ideal destinations touted by the tourism industry. “We wanted to show what our holidays could become if we don’t clean our beaches,” she said.
RUSSIA
Archpriest outrages women
Feminists expressed outrage on Wednesday after the country’s Orthodox Church proposed women dress more modestly and refrain from walking down the street “painted like a clown.” In a letter published by Interfax news agency on Tuesday, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said: “We should create an all-Russian dress code … Either scantily clad or painted like a clown, a woman who counts on meeting men on the street, in the metro or a bar not only risks running into a drunken idiot but will meet men with no self-respect.” Last month Chaplin said women in mini-skirts were to blame if raped as they “provoke men.” His comments were widely condemned by the media on Wednesday.
BELGIUM
Politician quits TV show
An influential politician who was criticized for clowning on a racy TV quiz show while negotiations to form a permanent government for the country foundered said on Wednesday he was quitting the show. Bart De Wever, leader of the Dutch-speaking Flemish nationalist N-VA, said that taping the final of the show of The Very Smartest Human in the World no longer fit into his agenda. Negotiations for a new government are in their record seventh month and critics compared De Wever to the emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned. In one episode of the show De Wever identified famous actresses from photos in which they accidentally had their nipples showing.
BRITAIN
No tweets please, we’re MPs
Members of parliament (MPs) have been banned from using Twitter while sitting in the chamber. Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle gave the ruling on Wednesday after Labour MP Kevin Brennan complained during a debate that Julian Huppert of the Liberal Democrat party, was tweeting. Brennan protested that it was unfair of Huppert to make points about the debate via Twitter instead of giving his arguments inside the House of Commons chamber where other legislators could have the chance to rebut his points. “I am glad you have brought it to my attention. I am sure no honorable member will be tweeting from the chamber to let the outside world know what is going on,” Hoyle said. Guidelines issued in June last year only say that mobile phones should not be used in the chamber, but that hand-held devices to use e-mails are acceptable.
UNITED STATES
Burglars snort ashes
Burglars snorted the cremated remains of a man and two dogs in the mistaken belief that they had stolen illegal drugs, Florida sheriff’s deputies said on Wednesday. The ashes were taken from a woman’s home in the central Florida town of Silver Springs Shores on Dec. 15. The thieves took an urn containing the ashes of her father and another container with the ashes of her two Great Danes, along with electronic equipment and jewelry, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said. Investigators learned what happened to the ashes after they arrested five teens in connection with another burglary attempt at a nearby home last week. “The suspects mistook the ashes for either cocaine or heroin. It was soon discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine,” the sheriff’s report said. Once they realized their error, the suspects discussed returning the remaining ashes, but threw them in a lake instead because they thought their fingerprints were on the containers, sheriff’s spokesman Judge Cochran said. Police divers were trying to recover the ashes. The suspects were jailed on numerous burglary and other charges.
UNITED STATES
Spider mailer pleads guilty
A German national who shipped hundreds of live tarantulas into the US through the mail has pleaded guilty to a federal smuggling charge, prosecutors said. In pleading guilty on Tuesday, Sven Koppler, 37, admitted mailing about 247 live tarantulas to federal agents in Los Angeles, who were posing as buyers as part of an investigation dubbed “Operation Spiderman.” Koppler further admitted sending the agents 22 Mexican Red-kneed tarantulas, a species of spider formally known as Brachypelma smithi that is protected under an international treaty. Koppler, who lives in Wachtberg, Germany, faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on April 11, US Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said.
UNITED STATES
Eatery serves lion tacos
A Tucson taco restaurant has already served up python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake and turtle. What’s next? Lion meat. Boca Tacos y Tequila said it’s accepting orders for African lion tacos, to be served starting on Feb. 16. Bryan Mazon said there are already a few reservations from curious customers. Mazon said his restaurant started offering exotic tacos on its menu every Wednesday about six months ago and has tried “just about anything we can get our hands on.” According to the Food and Drug Administration, lion and other game meat can be sold as long as the species isn’t endangered. The Arizona Daily Star said most of Boca’s exotic tacos range between US$3 and US$4. The lion tacos will cost US$8.75 apiece.
UNITED STATES
City rejects DUI postings
Police in Huntington Beach, California, will not be posting the mug shots of habitual drunken drivers on Facebook after all. The City Council late on Tuesday shot down a proposal by Huntington Beach Councilman Devin Dwyer that would have directed police to post photos of repeat driving under the influence (DUI) suspects online. He had wanted to “shame” people into changing their behavior. The police department opposed the move, saying it would alienate residents. Huntington Beach has a downtown packed with bars and is ranked top in the state for alcohol-related traffic fatalities.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”