TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

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Sumo hopes to hit it big at Madison Square Garden

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two dozen Sumo wrestlers hoping to hit it big in New York stopped traffic on Thursday as they stomped across 7th Avenue displaying more than 8,000 pounds of jiggly flesh on their way into Madison Square Garden.

The wrestlers, representing nine countries, weighed in for Saturday's "Battle of the Giants," an event that organizers plan as the kickoff to a North American tour starting next spring.

"It is the perfect sport for me," said 6-foot-7 Torsten Scheibler of Germany, who tipped the scale at 438.5 pounds.

Scheibler, who won the gold medal in a tournament last week in Osaka, Japan, took up Japan's national sport after studying judo. "Fans are most interested in seeing big guys," he said, describing his technique as being "like buffaloes colliding."

The heaviest sumo was 6-foot-1 Hungarian Deszo Libor, at 461 pounds. He finished second in Osaka.

The others that topped the 400-pound mark were Mitshuhiko Fukao of Japan, and Hawaiian Oni pa'a Imua Pa'a'aina, who said he missed the usual breakfast he makes for himself back home.

"I usually have a dozen eggs, five cups of rice and a pack of bacon," he said.

First prize in the tournament is $10,000.

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Researchers find anti-freeze in fleas

TORONTO (Reuters) - Tiny fleas that survive on fungus found under a blanket of snow contain a unique antifreeze that could have implications for farming or transplant surgery, Canadian researchers said Wednesday.

The researchers, whose report is published in the latest edition of Science, said their findings could help protect plants or animals from frost, or allow donated transplant organs to be stored and transported at lower temperatures.

The six-legged snow fleas are between 0.04 to 0.08 inches, with six legs and no wings.

They are also known as springtails because they have an abdominal spring called a furcula that lets them jump away from predators.

Their bodies contain proteins that limit the growth of ice by lowering the freezing point of fluids by 11 degrees Fahrenheit, said the researchers, from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

One practical application of the study could be to store transplant organs at cooler temperatures to preserve them for longer.

"If you can profuse, or basically run a solution with an antifreeze protein and flood an organ with it, you might then be able to store it at lower temperatures and the antifreeze would prevent the organ from actually freezing," said Laurie Graham, one of the two researchers who carried out the study.

"Theoretically, with this antifreeze protein we might be able to store an organ at 21 degrees Fahrenheit. Hopefully, it would be able to last longer so that you would have longer to do tissue matching to get the organ to the patient and just increase the shelf life of organs."

She said frozen foods could also benefit from the discovery, if the antifreeze, which she derived from crushed snow fleas, can be used to inhibit freezer burn.

Another possible application could be in crops, allowing fruit trees to survive a cold snap.

"If you were able to genetically modify any crop that was susceptible to frost you may be able to generate a crop that's not so sensitive," Graham said.

The researchers found that the antifreeze proteins in the snow fleas were different from those in beetles and moths, prompting Graham and her research partner, Queen's University biochemistry Professor Peter Davies, to conclude that these antifreeze proteins evolved independently in the snow fleas.

"There would have been climate change and the organisms were challenged by a new environment," Graham said. It's almost like nature has had to reinvent the wheel."

The snow flea is wingless and is not related to the biting flea, which is a true insect.

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at least we have a good use for fleas

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Giant "corpse flower" blooms

BERLIN (Reuters) - The world's tallest -- and smelliest -- flower has bloomed, reaching a height of 2.94 metres, 18 centimetres more than the previous record for the species, the Stuttgart botanical garden said Friday.

The Titan Arum, or Amorphophallus Titanum, nicknamed "corpse flower" because of its putrid stench, blooms rarely and briefly.

Garden staff have nicknamed the purple flower "Diva" and are charting its life on their web site, http://www.wilhelma.de.

But those keen for a glimpse, or a whiff, in person must be quick: just 24 hours after the 11 year-old plant produced its first flower, the bloom began to wilt Friday.

The Titan Arum was discovered in 1878 in its sole indigenous habitat, the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and grows in cultivation in only a handful of places around the world.

Its scent has been likened to rotting fish or animal flesh.

"The smell is crucial to its survival in its natural habitat because it attracts pollinating carrion beetles and flesh flies," said botanist Franziska Lo-Kockel.

Lo-Kockel brought the bulb of the plant, weighing some 40 kilograms, from the University of Frankfurt to the Stuttgart gardens 11 years ago.

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Cyprus wants to get its flag right after 45 years

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus says independent minded flag makers have been adding their own creative touches to the national flag for 45 years and it's time to get it right.

Cyprus's white flag should have a copper-colored map of the guitar-shaped island in the center, above two olive branches.

But Andreas Christou, director of the government supplies office, says: "It seems every department has been going to local manufacturers and some like the colors lighter, some darker. They like the map bigger or smaller."

Now, flags flying the wrong color will be replaced by ones with the correct shade of copper, he told the daily Cyprus Mail newspaper.

That shade is neither yellow, nor orange nor red but copper, and to be precise, 144-C, to reflect the Mediterranean island's historical attachment to the metal.

Cyprus was famed from antiquity for its rich resources of copper and is believed to have given its name to the Latin word for the metal, "Cuprum," or "ore of Cyprus."

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Something you don't see too often..

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - A motorcyclist with a helmet-wearing corpse strapped to his back crashed in this Mexican city on the U.S. border on Friday and fled on foot, setting off a police murder hunt.

The unidentified driver was trying to ride with the body through the center of Tijuana, south of San Diego, California., when he lost control rounding a curve.

He fled the scene, leaving the dead passenger on the curb. Police said the corpse, which had head injuries and bore strangulation marks, had died at least six hours earlier.

"When the police arrived they took the helmet off the corpse, believing at first that he had died in the crash," said Francisco Castro, a spokesman for the Baja California state police's homicide division.

"But he had adhesive tape stuck to his face, a knife wound to his forehead, and showed signs of strangulation," he added.

Castro said the dead man had wraps of methamphetamine in his pocket and an unkempt appearance, which led investigators to believe the killing was drug related.

"We think the killer was trying to take the body to a more deserted area to dispose of it," he said.

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Tourist charged for bathing naked

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Indian police have brought charges against a Finnish tourist for bathing naked in a holy lake in a Hindu pilgrim town, a police officer said on Monday.

Police said the tourist walked to her hotel in the nude after taking a dip in the lake in Pushkar in the desert state of Rajasthan Saturday, angering several local people and priests.

"We have framed charges of indecency against the lady tourist from Finland under section 294 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," Sugan Singh, a police officer in Pushkar, told Reuters.

Under India's obscenity laws, the tourist can be imprisoned for three months or pay a fine.

Pushkar has a famous temple dedicated to Brahma -- the Hindu god of creation -- and is popular with foreign tourists who come for its desert ambience, camel safaris and annual camel fair.

Last month, an Israeli couple was fined 1,000 rupees after an Indian court found them guilty of obscenity for kissing during their marriage ceremony in Pushkar.

India has tough obscenity laws and kissing in public is frowned upon in the largely conservative country. Last October, local residents in the western state complained to authorities that a group of Israeli women had danced naked near Pushkar.

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Inventions: Sex drive patch to sideways bike

LONDON (Reuters) - From a scented patch to boost a woman's sex drive to a bicycle that travels sideways, the weird, wonderful and wacky were out in force at the British Invention Show on Saturday.

Inventor Liz Paul claims that her Scentuelle -- a tiny transparent patch that exudes dopamines and is worn by a woman on her wrist to recharge her sexual battery -- is just what today's stressed and multi-tasking females need.

"Men have Viagra, now we women have this," she told Reuters at the show in north London's Alexandra Palace. "Research has shown that 35 percent of women have problems with their libido."

At the other end of the scale she also has a patch that might not be quite so welcomed by women as it blocks cravings for chocolate -- regarded by many women to be as good as sex.

Elsewhere in the show -- and somewhat less discreet or even portable -- is a giant appliance called The Egg which offers a full body massage at the same time as aroma therapy and relaxing music.

"Step in stressed and emerge 15 minutes later a new person," said Cathy Morris. "We have had enquiries from business and even some home individuals interested in installing one at home."

But sensuality was not all that was on offer, Brent Simon waxed lyrical about his coolbag that behaves like a fridge, Roark McMaster showed off his rubber hat that keeps cut cucumbers fresh and Lewis Kirkbride had a new take on umbrellas.

Reza Kahouli even offered to make it rain -- or stop raining -- in just 15 minutes if someone would let him have an aircraft.

At the simple end of the spectrum, Mike Minton was deeply proud of his hand-held device that pre-cuts toast soldiers for dipping into soft-boiled eggs.

"Look," he said. "Straight edges and no crumbs every time."

But perhaps the wackiest invention was Michael Killian's SidewaysBike -- a contraption with a single handlebar at either end and a saddle in the middle that he described as the bicycling equivalent of snowboarding.

"The beauty of this is that it has absolutely no purpose except fun," he said with a broad smile.

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Soaring energy costs to hit dirty laundry baskets

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The cost of airing your dirty laundry in public is about to go up.

It is not only the motorist who has been socked in the wallet by soaring energy prices -- people who use Laundromats will also feel like they have been taken to the cleaners this winter.

Natural gas, propane and electricity prices continue their march to new heights, and with those higher prices come higher utility bills for retail laundry centers -- much, much higher.

"We're a business that absolutely lives on utilities and essentially reselling utilities to our customers through the use of our facilities," said Brian Wallace, chief executive of the Coin Laundry Association.

The association represents about 14 percent of the 35,000 "retail self-service laundries" throughout the country. Its members are now contending with the prospect of both having to raise prices and install more efficient machines in order to make ends -- to say nothing of socks -- meet.

Some are raising wash prices in small increments, while others are adjusting dryer cycles, giving not the national average eight minutes per 25 cents but rather anywhere from five to seven minutes. (Or setting the start price at 50 cents.)

"The Catch-22 is that ours is really an industry that serves a segment of the population that can really least afford price increases," said Patti Andresen-Shew, a spokeswoman for Alliance Laundry Holdings LLC, owner of the well-known Laundromat brand SpeedQueen.

Alliance's customers, like many in the industry, are switching to more energy-efficient machines that use less hot water and give greater control over the length and the temperature of cycles.

"You're seeing the trend toward more front-load equipment, whether that be on the washing side or the drying side," Andresen-Shew said.

NEW MACHINES NOT A CURE-ALL

But there are some trade-offs with energy-efficient machines, among them that such units tend to run slower, or at lower temperatures.

"I could put in one of these 40-minute dryers, but I would lose customers," said Thomas Rhodes, owner of Sunshine Coin Laundries, a Florida chain. "People, they want to get in and out of a Laundromat. They don't want to sit there an extra 10 minutes because you've lowered the temperature 10 degrees."

Rhodes, whose family started the seven-store chain in 1977, is part of a group that buys propane for fuel under a long-term contract with caps. That group has been paying around the cap price of $1.18 per gallon for five months now, he said, though people outside the group are paying market rates about $1.40.

But for lack of any other relief Rhodes and some of his colleagues are considering alternatives like solar -- not hanging laundry out on a line in the sun like the old days, but solar panels for electricity.

"We're going to seriously consider taking advantage of some of the credits the government is offering," he said.

With other energy-intensive pursuits like driving or home heating, people can sometimes cut back to keep their costs down. But with a sweaty T-shirt or a stained pair of pants, there really is no option.

"Really what we're providing is a basic public health service," the Coin Laundry Association's Wallace said. "The fact of the matter is, dirty laundry has to be done. It's not something that can be rationed or put off until energy prices come down."

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Christian group wants to 'redeem' US states

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Cory Burnell wants to set up a Christian nation within the United States where abortion is illegal, gay marriage is banned, schools cannot teach evolution, children can pray to Jesus in public schools and the Ten Commandments are posted publicly.

To that end, Burnell, 29, left the Republican Party, moved from California and founded Christian Exodus two years ago with the goal of redirecting the United States by "redeeming" one state at a time.

First up for redemption is South Carolina.

Burnell hopes to move 2,500 Christians into the northern part of the state by next year and to persuade tens of thousands to relocate by 2016. His goal is to fill the state legislature with "Christian constitutionalists."

The push comes at a time when Christian fundamentalism is a growing force in U.S. politics, displays of the Ten Commandments in government buildings are spurring litigation and President George W. Bush is touting the evangelical Christian credentials of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Christian Exodus officially started in May 2004, reaching people mainly through the Internet. Since then, five families and two individuals have relocated to South Carolina, Burnell said.

The organization, which claims about 1,000 members, held its first conference October 15-16 to promote its agenda. About 50 people from as far away as Ohio and Oregon attended.

Burnell picked South Carolina partly for its Christian majority and conservative politics.

"Historically, Southerners do have a states' rights mentality," he said. "Christians in the North are experiencing the most liberalism, or you could say persecution."

Christian Exodus hopes to throw off what it considers unconstitutional burdens imposed by the federal government. Examples, Burnell said, are federal spending on public education and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the use of the courts "to teach that Heather has two mommies."

"We (want to) force Washington, D.C., to reform itself by not going along with it," he said.

The organization's Web site says if it does not meet its goal of change, it will work to secede from the United States.

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union in 1860, and the first shots of the U.S. Civil War were fired from Charleston's Battery onto Fort Sumter.

The group's reception in South Carolina has been mixed.

Arthur Bryngelson, chairman of the Dorchester County Republican Party, spoke at a Christian Exodus' conference and said he would encourage Christian Exodus members to become Republicans.

"I consider myself to be a fundamental Christian," he said. "I'm with (Christian Exodus) all the way up to secession. ... I'm not in favor of going down to the Battery and firing on Fort Sumter again."

State Sen. Mike Fair, a Republican who described himself as "a narrow-minded, right-wing, fundamentalist fanatic," said he was suspicious of Christian Exodus.

"I had huge credibility problems with them," he said. "Their plank for this perceived buckle of the Bible Belt, they're so far off the mark. I don't think they're going to get much traction."

Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, would not comment except to say, "We have a great state with a great quality of life that's certainly open to anyone."

Columbia attorney Herbert E. Buhl III, who does legal work for the American Civil Liberties Union, said he received "a nasty little letter ... calling me a liar" from a Christian Exodus representative.

Buhl said the letter came after he had represented Wiccan Darla Wynne, who successfully sued the town of Great Falls to remove the name of Jesus Christ from pre-meeting prayers. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in 2004 with a federal judge that the town's prayers were an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by government.

"This should be a nonissue," Buhl said. "It's separation of church and state. This is black-letter law."

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Fanboys and overdogs muscling into English language

LONDON (Reuters) - Don't know a fanboy from an overdog? Fear not -- help is at hand.

As the English language battles against a tide of buzzwords and jargon, Susie Dent has sprung to the rescue of the linguistically bewildered.

From machosexuals to spear-phishing, she has compiled an language report that shows how business, politics and the media are all to blame for the gobbledygook that all too swiftly becomes common parlance.

In her reference book "Fanboys and Overdogs" the linguistic expert hails the language's vitality in the age of the Internet and concludes: "We can only guess at where English is heading. For the moment though, there is plenty to marvel at."

For Dent, an editor and translator best known as resident dictionary expert on the cult British TV show "Countdown," business-speak deserves a linguistic Oscar for sheer obfuscation.

For this is the age of the rate tart -- someone who switches credit cards at will in pursuit of the best interest rates -- and the empty suit -- a person in a position of authority but with no real power.

And anyone "downsized" from a multinational which outsources business to India now knows what it is like to be "Bangalored."

Jargon can swamp the language, with one investment company mocked for reminding customers: "Please ensure that all registered holders complete and sign the enclosed Form of Renunciation. Due to a temporary issue, we are currently unable to pre-populate all holders' names and addresses."

Words bubbling under the surface of everyday usage often catch the lexicographer's eye.

Hi-tech media spread new words as fast as they appear in an age when spear phishers try to wangle passwords out of unsuspecting Internet users.

But only time will tell if the machosexual -- the oafish man who cares little for his appearance -- will survive along with fanboy nerds who love collecting comics and the overdog -- today's version of the perennial top dog.

EUPHEMISM

Euphemism and exaggeration run riot in the inflated parlance of 21st century English.

A disbelieving Dent heralds supermarket shelf-stackers who are known as stock replenishment executives and mail-room helpers who have become dispatch services facilitators.

Tabloids are heralded in the book for turning headline writing into an art form as English is twisted into a new shorthand.

With a nod to Mary Poppins, the Sun summed up the defeat of Glasgow Football club Celtic who hit a new low in the Scottish Cup when beaten by newcomers Inverness Caledonian Thistle, popularly known as Caley.

The Sun headline was "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious."

And Queen Elizabeth's decision not to attend the wedding of her eldest son Charles to his long-time lover Camilla Parker Bowles offered an intriguing transatlantic contrast.

Britain's Mirror tabloid headline read "Royal Wedding Snub Sensation: Heir Rage."

The New York Post opted for "Queen to Skip Chuck Nups."

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Bottle ends shooting spree

MANILA (Reuters) - A German man killed two men and wounded two others with a pistol in a farming town in the northern Philippines before he was knocked unconscious with a soft drink bottle, police said Tuesday.

The trouble began when a 51-year-old German national who is married to a Filipino woman was summoned to the community hall to answer complaints from his neighbors accusing him of issuing threats Sunday.

During a heated argument with his four neighbors, the man pulled out a .45 caliber pistol and began shooting at people inside the hall, said Jefferson Soriano, chief of police in the northern Cagayan Valley region.

"The village chief and his deputy were killed on the spot," Soriano told reporters. "Two of his four neighbors were shot in the head and neck, while the others scampered for safety."

Soriano said the German man chased and shot at those who tried to escape. He was subdued after the wife of one of his neighbors hit him in the head with a soft drink bottle.

Police officers found the man still unconscious and took him to hospital. He now faces murder charges.

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Police scramble to squash pumpkin threat

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan security services scrambled Monday to tackle a new threat on the streets of Caracas: Halloween-style pumpkins carrying messages of rebellion against President Hugo Chavez.

Local media showed heavily armed police and bomb experts surrounding one orange squash with a Halloween face and covered with stickers; others sprouted cables and wires making authorities wary they could be home-made explosives.

"We took preventative measures, as this could have been someone with another intention or an artifact that could have harmed someone," Investigative police division commissioner Jesus Gonzalez told local radio.

The pumpkins were found outside the state petrochemical company Pequiven and the offices of Chavez's political party with references to a constitutional article about civil resistance, local media reported. Chavez opponents often refer to Article 350 when calling for support of street protests.

The pumpkin alert came just weeks after authorities found scores of paper skeletons with anti-Chavez messages hanging from bridges and lampposts in Caracas. Police described them as a "Machiavellian" attempt to cause unrest.

Since surviving a 2002 coup, Chavez has often accused his opponents of working with Washington to topple his government or kill him. He faced months of protests by opponents who say he has dragged Venezuela toward Cuba-style communism.

Venezuela returned to relative political calm after Chavez won an August 2004 referendum and the former army paratrooper has since promised to promote a self-described socialist revolution in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

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Film archives showcase classics of nanny state

LONDON (Reuters) - In a blast back to an era when the government lectured its citizens on everything from blowing their noses to how to ride a bus, the UK's National Archives will put 60 public information films online dating back to 1945.

"You must look where you're going," the narrator says in a 1958 reel advising pedestrians how to cross the road safely.

"It's no good thinking you can have a sleep or eat your breakfast out there because you'll soon find yourself in trouble."

The National Archives has posted 22 films released between 1945 to 1951, a period when London hosted its first Olympics, and the Labor government built up the welfare state.

It will release the rest of the 60 films, which include items from the 1970s and 80s, in batches over the coming six months.

Other films released Tuesday include a one-minute 1945 piece called "coughs and sneezes" that advises citizens to close their eyes and use a handkerchief when sneezing.

A 1950 film teaches visitors from other Commonwealth countries how to behave on a London bus.

"The films really do give you a flavor of the issues of the time," said a spokeswoman for the Central Office of Information, a publicity arm of the UK government that replaced the wartime Ministry of Information in 1946 and produced the films.

Later items to be released include a 1975 film, the Green Cross Code Man, which teaches children how to cross the road and stars David Prowse, the man behind Darth Vader's mask in the original Star Wars movies.

The digitised films can be seen on the National Archives' website at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/

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Court enforces letter of the law

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish court fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new year celebration, under a law banning characters not used in the Turkish alphabet, rights campaigners said Tuesday.

The court in the southeastern city of Siirt fined each of the 20 people 100 new lira for holding up the placards, written in Kurdish, at the event last year. The letters Q and W do not exist in the Turkish alphabet, but are used in Kurdish.

Under pressure from the European Union, Turkey lifted bans on teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish in 2002, but bureaucratic resistance has delayed implementing the reforms.

State television and radio began limited broadcasts in Kurdish last year, but local television channels have yet to receive permission to start programs in Kurdish.

The 1928 Law on the Adoption and Application of Turkish Letters changed the Turkish alphabet from the Arabic script to a modified Latin script and required all signs, advertising, newspapers and official documents to only use Turkish letters.

Many shops and companies in Turkey have names, signs and advertising using the letters Q, W and X which are not used in Turkish, in apparent violation of the 1928 law, but have not been prosecuted.

More than 30,000 people have been killed, most of them Kurds, since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels began an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.

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Call to mom seals robbery suspect's fate

ZAGREB (Reuters) - A phone call to his mother led to the downfall of a suspected German robber, who was arrested in Croatia after fleeing his homeland and eluding police for nearly two weeks.

Croatian police said the security guard made off with 7.2 million euros he was supposed to deliver to a German bank and fled to the Adriatic coast -- where he had apparently always dreamed of living.

After managing to evade a police and Interpol manhunt for 10 days while hiding out in the coastal Croatian city of Zadar, the suspect was nabbed after making a phone call to his mother, the daily Jutarnji List reported Tuesday.

Most of the money was still in his car as he only bought some clothes and shoes, police told the newspaper.

"We believe all the money was in the trunk of his car, but we are still counting it," police chief Antun Drazina was quoted as saying.

The 38-year-old father of three had a life-long dream of buying a house on the Adriatic sea, one of his former colleagues told the German press.

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One way to satisfy the fans..

LONDON (Reuters) - Nottingham Forest manager Gary Megson came up with a novel way of punishing his under-performing soccer players over the weekend when he made them face disgruntled fans in the changing rooms.

The former European champions, now languishing in the third tier of English football, were two goals down to Yeovil Town at halftime when a pair of fans aired their grievances to Megson.

Rather than ignore them, the manager invited them to get it off their chests with the players after the game.

Long-suffering fans John Emener and Andrew Peel thought he was joking, but Megson proved as good as his word following the 3-0 defeat.

"(Megson) was walking to the dugout and I said 'Come on Gary. There's hundreds of fans who have traveled hours to watch us being outfought and outplayed in every department,'" Emener told Tuesday's Times newspaper.

"He turned around and said 'I agree. That's exactly what I have just told them. Do you want to come in at the final whistle and tell them yourselves?'

"I though he might change his mind, but to his credit he kept his word, he just told us nothing abusive or personal.

"Their performances away to Swindon, Barnsley and Yeovil were unacceptable. I hope they got the message."

Forest, who last week lost to conference club Woking in a cup competition involving lower league sides, are 11th in the third division after being relegated from the second division last season.

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Another way to satisfy the fans..

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - IF Elfsborg will refund the admission fee and traveling costs to soccer fans who attended their crushing 8-1 defeat at newly-crowned champions Djurgarden in the final game of the Swedish premier league season, the club said Tuesday.

Elfsborg admitted their performance at Djurgarden was "unacceptable," and promised to refund ticket and travel expenses to fans who made a round-trip of around 435 miles to Stockholm to watch the game.

"We wish that we had been able to say that it depended on external factors, but there are no excuses, no explanations. We were just bad," the club, who finished the season in seventh place, said in a statement.

"We want to apologize to all our supporters, members and sponsors and the volunteers who work for our organization."

"8-1 will be ringing in our ears for the coming five or six months," Elfsborg said.

Djurgarden had clinched the league title the previous week.

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"Star Wars" becomes tool to teach modern technology

BOSTON (Reuters) - It's a "Star Wars" fan's dream -- the first public display of props and costumes from all six films in the series, including a replica cockpit of Han Solo's asteroid-battered Millennium Falcon.

But the $5 million exhibit goes beyond entertainment and turns "Star Wars" into a educational tool for science and technology, fields in which U.S. dominance faces a challenge from a new generation of engineers in Asia.

"Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination," opening on Thursday in Boston, was developed by "Star Wars" creator George

Lucas's LucasFilm Ltd. and Boston's Museum of Science to give

some scientific basis to the fantasy of the films.

Luke Skywalker's gravity-defying "Landspeeder" appears on stage in original form -- accompanied by lessons in magnetic levitation and the powerful electromagnets that can hurtle high-speed "maglev" trains at speeds of up to 310 mph.

Rows of "Star Wars" androids and Anakin Skywalker's prosthetic right hand from Episode III -- before his transformation into Darth Vader -- are used to explain advances

in robotic technology and modern medical prosthetics.

The cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, built to a blueprint provided by Lucas, is transformed into a high-tech planetarium with a recorded voice of Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO, explaining the stars and how modern scientists view them.

The museum's president and director, Ioannis Miaoulis, said

he feared U.S. schools were failing to produce enough future engineers to meet competition from Asia, putting pressure on museums like his to play a more influential role.

"We are producing generations of people that have no understanding about how most of the things they interact with in their day-to-day life work," he said.

COMPETITIVE EDGE

Backing Miaoulis' concern is data showing China producing the world's largest number of science and engineering graduates

-- at least five times as many as in the United States, where

the number has fallen since the early 1980's.

"We used to be the leading country in engineering graduates, and now Asia has that role," said Miaoulis.

In another exhibit, children can choose sensors, select wheels and build their own android-like robots. About 80 props -- from Princess Leia's white dress to Darth Vader's mask and R2-D2 -- sprawl over 10,000 square feet (930 sq meter) in the museum.

Some of the lessons, such as the exhibit on spaceships and floating vehicles that harness "maglev" technology, highlight areas in which the United States trails other nations.

Using a magnetic field and the principle of attraction and propulsion, engineless "maglev" trains hover just inches (cm) above their paths. Like the floating ships in "Star Wars," the trains can escape friction and move faster than conventional trains, relieving strains on airports and congested highways.

Shanghai operates a German-built one. Japan has its own version in the city of Nagoya and is moving aggressively to export the technology. The United States has yet to operate or develop a maglev train.

At the Boston exhibit, children can build their own, using magnets, pieces of wood and guided paths.

"We're using 'Star Wars' as a way to jump start the way people think about things in the real world," said Ed Rodley, an exhibit planner.

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Giant "corpse flower" blooms

BERLIN (Reuters) - The world's tallest -- and smelliest -- flower has bloomed, reaching a height of 2.94 metres, 18 centimetres more than the previous record for the species, the Stuttgart botanical garden said Friday.

The Titan Arum, or Amorphophallus Titanum, nicknamed "corpse flower" because of its putrid stench, blooms rarely and briefly.

Garden staff have nicknamed the purple flower "Diva" and are charting its life on their web site, http://www.wilhelma.de.

But those keen for a glimpse, or a whiff, in person must be quick: just 24 hours after the 11 year-old plant produced its first flower, the bloom began to wilt Friday.

The Titan Arum was discovered in 1878 in its sole indigenous habitat, the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and grows in cultivation in only a handful of places around the world.

Its scent has been likened to rotting fish or animal flesh.

"The smell is crucial to its survival in its natural habitat because it attracts pollinating carrion beetles and flesh flies," said botanist Franziska Lo-Kockel.

Lo-Kockel brought the bulb of the plant, weighing some 40 kilograms, from the University of Frankfurt to the Stuttgart gardens 11 years ago.

i have one at work, hehe