TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

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$5 Million Can Buy Lots of Bull in New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Charging Bull," one of New York's most recognized statues that once made a brief debut outside the Stock Exchange, is for sale.
The minimum bid is $5 million but sculptor and owner Arturo Di Modica says the buyer must keep the pavement-pawing statue where it now stands in the financial district and donate it to the city.

In return, the owner gets a tax deduction and a plaque.

The sculptor said he was inspired to create the bull after the 1987 stock market collapse. The creation took two years and more than $300,000.

Then, early one morning 15 years ago, with the help of some 30 friends, a crane and flatbed truck, he placed the 11-foot-tall, 16-foot-long, 7,000-pound statue in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Police impounded the sculpture, but the public protested.

The city Parks Department then freed the bull from police custody and installed it at Bowling Green on lower Broadway, just a few minutes walk from the Exchange.

"The 'Charging Bull' is a part of New York and it must stay in New York," Di Modica said by telephone from Sicily on Tuesday. "I created the 'Charging Bull' to give young people a sense of hope."

Di Modica said he would use most of the proceeds to create other works and donate some money to a New York charity.

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Toy Maker Equips Toy Train with Condom

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 145-year-old German maker of toy trains is giving its adult customers a chance to have a one-track mind.
The miniature train company Marklin is packing a condom alongside a blue freight car emblazoned with the name of Blausiegel, a German condom maker.

Marklin, a Goppingen, Germany-based company that was the first to introduce toy track with its train sets in 1891, produces trains that often carry the names of real companies to emulate actual rail cars. Collectors' editions with less Freudian implications have been sold along with liquor advertised on the cars.

The toy freight car, which comes packaged with a "Billy Boy" condom is available in HO scale, or 1/87th of the actual size of a freight train, just under 4 inches long, and Z scale, which is 1/220th of the size of a real train.

Ralph Israel, partner of Manhattan Train & Hobby store in New York, said he sold two of the models, both to men, the first day they were put in the glass cases in his hobby shop. They are not being marketed to appear under the Christmas tree as gifts for children.

The toy train and the condom, which retail for $35, are packaged in a sleek brushed-metal container the size of a cigar box. The packaging offers no instructions on running the miniature train but does have illustrated instructions on using the condom. [/b]

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Bush Monkey Picture Shown on Giant Billboard

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait of President Bush using monkeys to form his image that was banished from a New York art show last week amid charges of censorship was projected on a giant billboard in Manhattan on Tuesday.
"Bush Monkeys," a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir last week at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market's managers to close down the 60-piece show.

Animal Magazine, a quarterly arts publication that had organized the month-long show, said anonymous donors had paid for the picture to be posted on a giant digital billboard over the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, used by thousands of commuters traveling between Manhattan and New Jersey.

The original picture will be auctioned on eBay, with part of the proceeds donated to parents of U.S. soldiers wishing to supply their sons and daughters with body armor in Iraq.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came under fire from soldiers in Kuwait earlier this month who complained that they had to use scrap metal to armor their vehicles.

"Many of my friends are over in Iraq," Savido said in a statement.

The painting offers a likeness of Bush but the image is made up of monkeys swimming in a marsh. It was originally priced at $3,500 in the show's catalog.

Organizers expect more than 400,000 drivers to see the billboard each day for the next month.

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Avocado Oil, Taco Grease Fuel Eco-Bus

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ecologists toured Mexico City taco stands and sushi bars on Wednesday to refuel an old school bus with waste cooking oil that will power the next leg of a green-awareness tour from California to Costa Rica.

The bus, which ran on avocado oil during a week-long drive down from the U.S. border, is being used to prove that vehicles can run on recycled fuels that pollute less than gasoline as it chugs around oil refineries, factories and eateries collecting vegetable oil.

"We're running low, we have to score some oil today," said environmentalist Zak Zaidman as crew members called around the greasiest-sounding eateries in the city's phone directory.

"We have two Japanese restaurants that have lined up a gallon or two and we are trying some taco stands. And we hope to hear back from a restaurant where we had dinner last night."

The eye-catching 1974 white American bus is loaded with tanks that can carry 350 gallons of oil. Its diesel engine has been modified to run on the more viscous food oil.

Headed for Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and lastly Costa Rica, it left San Francisco on Dec. 1 with 150 gallons of waste oil from local Chinese and taco restaurants.

It next filled up with used frying oil -- still hot -- from a Mexican restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, and a load of avocado oil from a refinery across the border in Sonora, Mexico.

"We are probably down to about 75 gallons so it would be good to score a lot. If we can't get it all at once we'll just get it little by little. We can just go to a restaurant, see what's in their grease trap, and pick it up," Zaidman said.

WASTE OIL EVERYWHERE

Vegetable oil is carbon-neutral, meaning when burned it releases the same amount of carbon as the plant it came from sucked in during its life, unlike much dirtier fossil fuels.

"Oil is a nonrenewable resource and our atmosphere is a finite container for our pollution," Zaidman said.

"When you look at all the waste oil thrown away by restaurants and companies that fry chips and stuff, there's tons that could be salvaged."
Crops like soybeans can also be grown for biofuels -- seen as a transitional energy source that Zaidman said could cover 10 percent of fuel needs, including for things like industry and tractors, for 30 to 40 years. "What with pollution and wars over oil, a lot of people want to get off petroleum," he said.

His group, who notes the diesel engine was actually invented to run on peanut oil, hopes to take its Sustainable Solutions Caravan tour, now in its second year, to Europe in 2005.

The bus uses biodiesel, a nontoxic fuel made from vegetable oil, alcohol and lye, to start off its engine until it is hot enough to heat up the food oil and reduce its viscosity.

A trickle of green-minded U.S. car users is going to pumping stations for biodiesel, which works with a normal engine but emits exhaust fumes that smell like fried food.

To convert a diesel engine to run on food oil costs around $400, a much cheaper option than fuel cell cars on the market.

Zaidman said there is no effect on engine efficiency.

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A New Kind of New Year's Resolution

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Instead of the usual New Year's resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking or exercise more, the Department of Homeland Security is urging Americans to create a family emergency plan for any terror attack.
"The start of a new year is a time when many Americans are inclined to think about ways to make improvements for the future," departing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday.

"Creating a family emergency plan is a great place to start. Families can create a plan that will allow them to know how best to communicate with one another in the event of an emergency," he said in a statement.

A suggestion by the department in February 2003 that Americans stockpile duct tape and plastic sheeting as part of an emergency kit in case of a chemical attack caused a rush on hardware stores and was widely ridiculed.

The department also has come under criticism for the five-tiered, color-coded terror alert warning system, which now is at yellow, signifying an "elevated" risk of attack. Critics said the government often gave little specific information when raising the alert level.

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New York Comedians Say Low Pay No Laughing Matter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pay's a joke and it's not funny any more -- New York comedians have had enough of working for peanuts and are threatening to walk out if the city's top stand-up comedy clubs don't raise their wages.

Comics Ted Alexandro and Russ Meneve have rounded up more than 300 funny men and women to form the New York Comedians Coalition and they have sent a letter to the city's top comedy venues demanding a raise.

The bottom line is that $60 to $75 for weekend set is not enough to survive, while the weekday rate of $15 to $25 for a 20-minute set is beyond a joke, Alexandro said.

"We've been making the same wage since 1985," he said.

"A comic working 12 to 14 shows a week grosses barely over $20,000 a year from the New York clubs," said Alexandro, a regular at top clubs such as Caroline's on Broadway, adding that he resorts to touring and corporate engagements.

New Year's Eve is the biggest comedy night of the year, with some clubs setting cover charges of up to $100, yet the comedians can expect to make little more than $100, or $250 as or master of ceremonies, Alexandro said. "I'm going to be out of town because that's where we make our money," he added.

Steve Hofstetter, a 25-year-old from New York who describes himself as a breakthrough comic just starting to get some recognition, said he didn't want to go on strike but he would be a willing participant if negotiations don't work.

"People should be paid what they're worth and if a comedian is generating a lot of money for a club, give them their due," Hofstetter said, adding that he had toured in 23 states in October alone to keep the money flowing in.

The comedians say admission and drinks prices have soared in the last 20 years while their pay has barely changed.

Chris Mazzilli, a former comic who owns the Gotham Comedy Club, said the economics were not so simple by the time he pays for six or seven comedians plus an MC on a weeknight when he can't be sure of filling his club with 130 or so covers.

"Clubs cost a lot of money to run. New York City is different: your rent factor is much higher and your insurance is much higher," Mazzilli said, adding that he had already agreed to raise his rates by $10 as a result of the letter.

Mazzilli and several other club owners have agreed to open negotiations in January with the comedians, who say they are willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve their goal, including going on strike.

"The comedians formed a coalition so that our concerns would be addressed collectively. Three hundred comics cannot be ignored," Meneve said.[/b]

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Cooks in a Stir Over New Food Controls

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Food lovers in Cyprus could face a glum holiday because nothing is good enough to eat any more.
Authorities have pulled some brands of nuts, dried fruit, honey and rose water from the market because they are tightening quality controls to comply with European Union standards.

Many of the foodstuffs are key ingredients in seasonal delicacies and many cooks fear they will have to ditch what they have baked for Christmas and get their rolling pins out again.

"Spit it all out," ran a headline in Thursday's Alithia daily.

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Queen Elizabeth's Cousin Banned from Driving

LONDON (Reuters) - A cousin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth was banned from driving for six months on Thursday after he was convicted of speeding.
The Duke of Gloucester, president of an organization that promotes safer driving, admitted doing 70 mph in a 60 mph area in his Ford car in Cambridgeshire, eastern England, in August.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) said the Duke would lose his membership as a result of the ban.

But officials have yet to decide whether the 60-year-old will have to step down as the organization's president.

"The president has offered his resignation," an IAM spokesman said. "The ruling council will decide on this matter when it meets in the new year."

The Duke was banned after being convicted of his fourth speeding offence in three years.

Magistrates in Ely also fined him $115 and ordered him to pay $70 court costs.

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Zoo to Inseminate Female 'Love' Birds

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Johannesburg zoo plans to artificially inseminate a pair of female birds who appear to be lovers to help boost dwindling numbers of the endangered wattled crane species, it said on Thursday.
Staff at the zoo assumed Cherry and Amazona were lovers when they arrived earlier this year and charmed visitors with typical mating rituals -- including dancing, serenading one another with song and tossing sticks into the air.

Tests showed the pair were both females, but due to a shortage of male wattled cranes and the species' faithfulness to one partner, the zoo decided to artificially inseminate the birds so they could reproduce.

"They are very, very endangered in South Africa so we have to try to optimize the breeding potential," said Mike Hamon, bird curator at the zoo. "This pair formed a strong bond, and when we realized they were both ladies it seemed artificial insemination was the best option."

Hamon said artificially inseminating the birds was a tricky business and that experts from the United States would come and help.

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Can You Extradite Someone Who Is Dead?

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombia says it might extradite a feared paramilitary warlord to the United States, even though former outlaw comrades and military intelligence officials say he is dead.
The government issued a statement Wednesday warning Carlos Castano, who disappeared in April, to rejoin peace talks along with other far-right paramilitaries or face extradition to the United States on cocaine smuggling charges.

While the government says it is not sure what happened to Castano, former allies within the illegal United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, have said he was killed by rivals from the same organization. Military intelligence official also say in private that he was murdered.

"According to the law, Castano may appeal this decision within five days of being notified," the government said.

President Alvaro Uribe has dramatically increased the rate of extraditions to the United States as part of his fight against cocaine gangs, far-right paramilitaries and Marxist rebels.

Under Castano, the AUC killed thousands of people it suspected of collaborating with Marxist rebels.

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Bookstores Rated New York's Best Pickup Spot

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Looking for a New Year's Eve date? Check under fiction at your local bookstore.
According to a survey of 1,003 New Yorkers aged 25 to 35 released by American Express on Wednesday, the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has the best singles scene in the city.

Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said she was not surprised.

"We've actually had requests from people who have met in our stores ... asking if they could be married in our stores," she said. The chain has hosted a number of weddings, she added.

Among the survey's other findings: 42 percent of those polled said they thought the best way to ring in the New Year was "at home, enjoying a quiet evening for two."

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Firefighters Burn Down Own Sauna

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A squad of fire-fighters accidentally set their own sauna ablaze but could not extinguish the fire despite their training.
The sauna, at Lappi, 140 miles west of Helsinki, was destroyed despite the volunteer fire-fighters' efforts, Finnish news agency STT said.

The fire Wednesday caused no injuries.

Bathing in a sauna is a national pastime in Finland, especially in winter, and most households have access to one.

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Russian PM Tells Ministers to Think Before Speaking

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov wants his ministers to engage their brains before opening their mouths, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Friday.
"We should follow the president's orders and before saying something, we must do a bit of thinking," Fradkov told a cabinet meeting. "Before beginning a sentence, you have to think about how to end it."

He was speaking the day after President Vladimir Putin said televised cabinet meetings would now be held behind closed doors to enhance debate and allow ministers to speak more freely.

"When the cameras are on, you want to look good but your head turns off," Putin said.

Last week a cabinet squabble broke out over the merits of the media, with the defense minister saying Russians were being turned into idiots by television shows and popular literature.

Fradkov was plucked from obscurity this year to head a cabinet widely seen as split between economic reformers and ministers with ties to the security forces. He has been criticized for being Putin's yes-man with no ideas of his own.

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Christmas Shrimp Back on the Barbie Down Under

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Forget last-minute gift shopping. Australians on Christmas Eve were flocking to fish markets in a late dash for shrimps after weather forecasters predicted mild weather over the holiday.

For generations, "shrimp on the barbie" has been to Australians what turkey with all the trimmings is to millions in colder climates.

But in Christmases past, the bone-dry winds that blow off the outback have fanned deadly fires that ringed the country's densely populated, leafy coastal cities, forcing authorities to ban barbecuing over Christmas.

One holiday season, ashes blanketed many of Sydney's otherwise pristine beaches. Another year, fires killed four people and chased koalas, bats and kangaroos out of the bush on to roads and into manicured suburban neighborhoods.

In 2002, hundreds of people were left homeless in Sydney after 109 homes burned to the ground.

"They might as well have canceled Christmas the year they banned barbecues," said Edward O'Reilly, who was planning to feed friends and relatives about 4 kg (9 lb) of shrimp this Christmas on Manly Beach in Sydney.

It may not be snow, but the muggy, wet forecast for Dec. 25 means people can pile plates high with shrimp.

Australians in Sydney alone will buy enough shrimp to cover a soccer field, paying on average about $26 (US$20) a kg, according to fishmongers.

"I've never seen so many people wanting shrimp," said Peter Poulos, owner of Peter's Fish Market, who has been wrapping shrimp for customers for 36 hours straight.

"We've probably sold 10,000 kg over the last 36 hours. Sales have been phenomenal, mate," Poulos said.

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Biblical King Solomon Treasure Turns Out to Be Fake

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A tiny ivory pomegranate once believed to be the only relic of King Solomon's biblical era Jewish Temple turns out not to be an artifact from the holy shrine, the Israel Museum said on Friday.
Israeli experts have determined the thumb-sized object is a lot older than believed, dating to the 13th or 14th Century BC, rather than to the 8th Century BC, which scholars say was around the time of Solomon.

Israeli archaeologists had authenticated the item in 1988, believing it had been smuggled out of Israel nine years earlier. The museum bought it for more than $500,000 from an unknown owner who was paid through a numbered Swiss bank account.

Researchers then thought the pomegranate was an ornamental top for a priest's scepter, based in part on an inscription which read: "Belonging to the Temple of the Lord (Yahweh), holy to the priests."

But in a statement on Friday, the museum said a new examination it conducted with the Israel Antiquities Authority found the inscription was a forgery. "The object itself dates to the Late Bronze Period but its inscription is not ancient."

The fake engraving is the latest of a series of scams uncovered recently in Israel involving archaeological finds.

Last year, an inscription on an ancient burial box that had led experts to believe it held the remains of Jesus' brother James, was found to be a forgery.

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Pope John Paul Hits the Little Screen

ROME (Reuters) - Trendy, high-tech Roman Catholics won't have to sit at home this Christmas to watch Pope John Paul's Christmas Midnight Mass on television.
They can watch the whole thing from wherever they are on the latest generation of cell phones.

Italian state broadcaster RAI said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with cell phone operators TIM and Vodafone to broadcast the 84-year-old Pontiff's Midnight Mass from the Vatican on Dec. 24 as well as his Christmas Day message and blessing on Friday.

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Spiderman to Scale World's Tallest Building

TAIPEI (Reuters) - French "Spiderman" Alain Robert, a dare-devil climbing ace, plans to scale the world's tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101, in the Taiwan capital on Christmas Day, the building's management said Friday.
Robert, who has conquered the world's most renowned landmarks with his bare hands including the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, will climb the 101-story Taipei office tower Saturday to kick off celebrations to mark its opening on Dec. 31.

The 42-year-old Frenchman will begin his ascent at 9:45 a.m. and is expected to reach the top of the 1,667-foot tower in about 2.5 hours, said Taipei 101's management.

The $1.7 billion Taipei 101 last year surpassed the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which Robert has also scaled, as the world's tallest building.

The shopping mall at the base of Taipei 101 has already opened for business. The gleaming office tower is designed to resemble a bamboo stalk and is equipped with the world's fastest lifts.

Robert has scaled more than 30 well-known structures including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Sydney Opera House, often without permission or any safety equipment or ropes.

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60s Santa Wanted to Join Union

LONDON (Reuters) - Union power may have been on the wane for some time now but at the height of the people power movement in the 1960s even Santa Claus wanted to join a union.
Records released on Thursday by the National Archive -- the guardian of Britain's collective memory -- showed a bid in 1968 to set up the Brotherhood of Father Christmas and Santa Claus Union.

The initial application to the Registry of Friendly Societies -- the government list of unions and charities -- was rejected but the solicitor working on behalf of the would-be organized Santas was undeterred.

"All members of the union must endeavor to bring the spirit of fantasy to bear on each child's visit," the firm said in its application. "No promises must be made by Father Christmas unless he intends to keep them himself in reality."

Finally in 1970 the authorities said a formal application to register the "Claus Union" could be put forward.

But then the record stops. No such union exists today, and there is no trace of whether one ever did.

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Paper Prints Only Good News in Christmas Issue

BERLIN (Reuters) - Dropping its daily diet of stories on crime, corruption and evil wrongdoing, Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper printed only good news in its Christmas issue Friday.

"No parking tickets today -- traffic wardens have day off!" the newspaper with 12 million readers wrote.

Bild turned a scandal involving the opposition Christian Democrats on its head, cheering a generous severance payment of 52,000 euros that the disgraced general secretary, Laurenz Meyer, received after quitting under pressure Wednesday.

"Merry Christmas! Fantastic severance pay package for Laurenz Meyer," Bild wrote, days after it led the attack on Meyer for taking payments from another former employer, which sparked the public outrage that led to his resignation.

German share prices and the euro's value versus the dollar hit record highs, consumers are spending more, health insurers are lowering fees, and the number of millionaires rose to 1.6 million from 1.1 million in 1998, Bild said on page one.

"That's the conflicting aspect of our time -- that it keeps producing bad news and puts horror on the assembly line even though we are all craving good news," wrote Bild columnist Peter Bacher. "But the good is never completely lost."

Bild even found positive news from overseas.

An Israeli scientist had developed a laser treatment against bad breath and a mugger in Zagreb who was always polite to his victims was finally captured by police.

Bild noted Germans made their own good news at Christmas.

"The procreation rate rises each year during the Christmas holidays," was the headline over a report that the number of births in Germany rises sharply every year in mid-September -- nine months after Christmas.

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Give a Goat for Christmas

LONDON (Reuters) - Looking for a last minute Christmas gift? Think goat!
You will pay 24 pounds ($46) for a goat or 10 pounds for a brood of chickens, tell a friend or relative that this is their Christmas present, and it will be sent to a Third World family to provide milk, meat, manure and offspring for trade.

People have bought 31,000 goats and 500,000 chickens under the scheme set up by the international aid agency Oxfam, not to mention 650,000 tree seedlings to provide wood and shade and prevent soil erosion. Other aid agencies have similar projects.

"Not only do people like the idea of giving something so unusual at Christmas, but you can also see how a goat, chicken, bike or midwife will make a difference to a person struggling against poverty," Oxfam manager Douglas Graham said.