Statistics And Other Lies
Travelling salesman donates kidney to Idaho man he met during sales call
TWIN FALLS, Idaho - When Jamie Howard knocked on Paul Sucher's door six months ago, he was trying to sell him a new vacuum cleaner. He ended up giving him one of his kidneys.
The chance encounter with Howard, a travelling salesman for the Kirby Co., led to transplant surgery in August. Now, the colour is returning to Sucher's cheeks and he is recovering.
Sucher, 35, suffered kidney failure three years ago because of high blood pressure, forcing him to undergo dialysis.
Bill Gates Has To Prove He's Got Money And Won't Be A Drain On Social Services Prior To Obtaining Visa To Nigeria
Is this ironic or what?
'Gay bomb' wins Ig Nobel award
While some awards clearly poke fun at popular culture, others are meant to provoke debate about science, honouring achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think", according to the magazine.
Japanese Pioneer 'Divorce-Loans'
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's first-ever divorce loan caters to those who fell head over heels in love only to find themselves up to their necks in debt.
Named "Re" for those re-starting their lives, the loan helps divorcees cover the cost of compensation and legal payments and offers a lower interest rate than credit cards loans, on which Japan's growing number of divorce-seekers have depended in the past.
China Bans Bra, Underwear, Sex Toy Ads
BEIJING (AP) - China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys in the communist government's latest move to purge the nation's airwaves of what it calls social pollution.
Regulators have already targeted ads using crude or suggestive language, behavior, and images, tightening their grip on television and radio a few weeks ahead of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress at which some new senior leaders will be appointed.
General Lee's Civil War-era letters fetch $61,000 at auction
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- For months, 11 folders of old papers rescued from his parents' closet sat in Thomas Willcox's sport utility vehicle. Then he realized some were signed by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and might be valuable.
They were: The three letters written by Lee during the Civil War sold at auction Saturday for $61,000.
Boomer Statistics You Never Hear About
For Americans ages 35 to 54:
What's Homer Simpson's Middle Name?
Have a friend who loves The Simpsons? Ask him or her what's Homer Simpson's middle name is. I bet you they won't know it or claim that Homer does not have one. But he does. It's Jay. Homer's full name is Homer Jay Simpson. Here is proof.
Former US Missile Base Put On eBay For $1.5 Million
Black Market For Chocolate Bars And Soda
WINNIPEG - A "black market" for junk food appears to have developed at a Winnipeg school cracking down on sweet treats and soda.
Kelvin High School has removed pop, chocolate bars and cinnamon buns from its cafeteria and vending machines as part of a new Winnipeg School Division nutrition plan.
The plan is based on provincial guidelines released in 2005.
More than 70 people have joined a Facebook site called "Bring Back Sugar to Kelvin High School."
One teen says students are making money by selling goodies out of their lockers.
Study sees rise in men not washing hands
CHICAGO - The gender gap has widened when it comes to hygiene, according to the latest stakeout by the "hand washing police." One-third of men didn't bother to wash after using the bathroom, compared with 12 percent of women, said the researchers who spy on people in public restrooms. They reported their latest findings Monday at a meeting of infectious disease scientists.
Two years ago, the last time the survey was done, only one-quarter of men didn't wash, compared with 10 percent of women.
