A Peking duck with a difference

April 18, 2011 at 6:10 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

This one has got green shoes on — made by its Peking owner

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THE NEWS

Odd news from around the world

Statue of Liberty confused with Las Vegas impostor by US postal service: “A new stamp that was meant to depict Lady Liberty in fact features a 1997 replica from outside a New York-themed casino in Las Vegas, it has emerged. Three billion of the 44-cent (27p) stamps, which show a close-up of the New York, New York hotel’s half-sized model, were printed before a collector spotted the error and contacted the weekly stamp news magazine ‘Linn’s Stamp News’. “The image is accurate,” said Roy Betts, a spokesman for the US postal service. “Just of the Vegas version, not the one in New York”. A close inspection of the face on the “forever” stamp – which can be used for first-class post indefinitely, regardless of price rises – reveals several differences with the real statue’s features. Furthermore, where the famous windows in Liberty’s crown should be, the Vegas replica has only crudely painted black blocks.”

Robber gets a hot dinner: “On Friday night the owner of a Chinese restaurant at Gaven Heights poured a wok full of hot chicken chow mein over the back of a bandit who was threatening his wife with a knife. Chi On Chung then started belting the would-be thief with his wok and ladle until the man dropped the knife. Mrs Chung picked it up and she and her husband chased the man down the street before he got away.”

British city spends big to produce a dumb playground: “It had been closed for two years as part of a £4million parkland renovation project. So when parents and their toddlers turned up for the grand reopening of the under-fives’ playground they were expecting something quite special. In the event, they were a little disappointed. There was no wide range of the traditional equipment, such as slides and roundabouts that they might have expected. The playground at Beacon Park in the cathedral city of Lichfield, Staffordshire, also includes ‘climbing rocks’, which parents say are dangerous for small children. The local council said the playground had been designed to encourage toddlers to ‘use their imaginations’. But Emma Jones, 35, who went to the opening last week with her toddler son Ben, was unimpressed. ‘Telling toddlers to use their imagination is a joke. Are they supposed to imagine a slide and a roundabout?’”

Feral chickens have proliferated in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina: “Since Hurricane Katrina, Ruby Melton’s 9th Ward enclave has welcomed a new species of neighbor: clucking, crowing, prancing chickens that dart across streets and nest in the trees. “We don’t have stray dogs any more,” said Melton, 68. “But everyone I talk to has stray chickens.” Most people figure that the wild birds descended from domesticated fowl that escaped backyard coops after the storm. Since then, the population has boomed, with the local SPCA chapter now dispatching officers weekly to catch feral chickens, spokeswoman Katherine LeBlanc said. Animal control officers place the stray chickens with a farmer they call the Chicken Man, LeBlanc said, noting that capturing the creatures is “extremely hard” and often requires the effort of several officers.”

Happiness is U-shaped: “Happiness follows a U-shaped curve during a person’s lifetime, according to research showing that middle-aged people are the unhappiest. Satisfaction with life starts to drop as early as a person’s late 20s and does not begin to recover until well past 50, says Bert van Landeghem, an economist at Maastricht University in Belgium. While young adults are carefree and full of hope for the future and the over-50s have come to terms with the trials of life, the research indicates that those in the middle feel weighed down by the demands on them. The study found “a substantial dip in happiness during the middle of people’s lives is the equivalent to becoming unemployed or losing a family member”. While he said happiness did return with age, he warned that older people did not actually recapture the spirit of their youth. They simply learnt to be satisfied with their lot.”

And don’t forget to catch up with all the Strange Justice before you go.