WhiteBoard News for Thursday, January 8, 2004

Sichuan Province, China (South China Morning Post):

A Chinese waiter chopped off three of his fingers outside his ex-girlfriend's house in an effort to win her back.

The 21-year-old sliced the fingers off in front of a police officer to prove his love for Xiao Qian, after she called police to remove him from outside her home in Sichuan province.

However, the stunt failed to win her sympathy, and Xiao has refused to visit her former lover in hospital.

"Nothing can change my mind," she told the South China Morning Post.
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Owensboro, Kentucky (Ananova):

A woman with the surname Wink has been charged with stealing 50 antique glass eyes from a hospital.

Melissa Jane Wink, 36, of Owensboro, Kentucky was charged after CCTV footage allegedly showed her leaving Owensboro Medical Health System with the artefacts.

The eyes have been recovered from a house Wink was staying in.

The eyes, which went missing on Christmas Eve, are valued at between $20 and $50 each.

Police are baffled as to the motive for stealing the eyes as there isn't high demand on the black market, reports www.wtvw.com.
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Bogota, Colombia (AP):

A young Colombian thief hid in a parcel delivered to a wealthy home but his planned burglary went wrong when suspicious security guards called in bomb disposal experts, police say. 

Guards at the condominium in the city of Medellin feared the strange, heavy package dropped off by a private vehicle could explode and phoned for help in Monday's incident, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. 

Police got a shock when a hand holding a knife punched through the cardboard as the panicked thief shouted he could not breathe. 

Police unpacked the parcel to find the gasping 24-year-old criminal, together with a gun, ropes and a ski mask. 

The house's owners fired their maid, to whom the box had been addressed, police said, although she has not been charged with being an accomplice. 
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Neupetershain, Germany (Ananova):

A Germany bus driver knew he was in trouble when he noticed he was being overtaken by his own back wheel.

The man, aged 39, was driving along a small, winding road near Neupetershain.

As he looked outside, he saw one of the twin set of left rear wheels of the bus overtaking him.

And just seconds later, the other wheel passed him by, Tagesspiegel newspaper reports.

With no left back wheels left, the bus soon overturned - but, luckily, it wasn't carrying any passengers and the driver escaped unharmed.

Experts say the driver's life was probably saved by the fact he was following a little-used detour, and going only about 20mph.

The owner of the bus says it is regularly checked and maintained and they are still investigating how the wheels came to fall off.
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Doneck, Ukraine (Korrespondent):

A group of Ukrainian balloonists claim to have set the world record for the lowest ever balloon flight by setting off in an underground mining shaft.

The specially shaped balloon had toughened sides to ensure it did not rip if it snagged on rocky outcrops after setting off 300 metres down the mining shaft at Soledar close to Doneck in Ukraine.

The balloon then flew up the mine shaft from under the earth's surface, the Ukrainian daily newspaper Korrespondent reported.

Guinness World Records spokesman Kate White said: "Its not a record we currently have so if the claim can be proved it has a good chance."
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Bremen, Germany (Independent Online):

A pair of German scientists have become early frontrunners for the 2004 "Ig Nobels" - annual awards handed out for eccentric research - thanks to their work in calculating the pooping power of penguins.

These flightless birds are known to expel their faeces with great force in order to prevent their waste from fouling their feathers and their nests.

Leaving no turd unstoned, Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow and Jozsef Gal of International University Bremen have now figured out the amount of rectal pressure required by the birds to perform this feat, New Scientist reported on Thursday.

The duo spent their time observing and photographing chinstrap and Adelie penguins as they did their business.

The calculations factored in vital data such as the size and viscosity of the faeces, as well as the trajectory and distance - up to 40 centimetres from the nest - taken by the expelled matter.

"The researchers estimate that the birds generate pressures of up to 60 kilopascals - more than half normal atmospheric pressure and more than four times the peak squeeze typically exerted by humans," the British weekly said.

It added, somewhat unnecessarily: "To what use this information will be put is unclear." 
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