WhiteBoard News for Friday, May 16, 2003

Berlin, Germany (Reuters):

After 15 days sitting on top of a two-and-a-half-meter (eight-foot) high pole, a momentary shift of his buttocks shatters Benjamin Buettner's dreams of glory in the 2003 World Pole-Sitting Championships. 

The contestants must stay on the pole day and night, squatting on a 40 by 60 cm (15 by 23 inch) board -- about the size of a broadsheet's front page. They may come down for only 10 minutes every two hours to perform their ablutions. 

"If you get back up there a second late, you're out," said organizer Klaus Mueller from the Heide Park Soltau amusement park in western Germany where the event is staged. 

Ladders allow competitors to go up and down and also supply them with food and drink or whatever distractions they need to while away the hours on their bird-like perches. 

To make sure no one cheats when the rest of the world has gone to bed, electronic sensors attached to the board monitor the pressure of backsides. Video cameras run constantly, as 22-year-old ambulanceman Buettner found out. 

"He tried to dupe us by pressing on the board with his hands and stealing a few seconds of respite on the ladder, but the camera caught him and the judges threw him out," said Mueller. 

This year's field of iron-bottomed contestants includes the reigning world pole-sitting champion, a 27-year-old mechanic who happens to be a Pole. Egypt, Hungary and Germany were also represented, but for some the stakes were too high. 

With the contest entering its 17th day, only six of the 10 starters remain in the fray. They are bracing for a long wait. 

"The current world record stands at 196 days. This year they want to crack the 200-day mark," Mueller said. 

That would mean sitting on the pole until mid-November. 

The unusual sport dates back to 1952, when villages in the Dutch province of Holland were flooded and inhabitants sat on top of poles until rescuers arrived. 

The Dutch are the sport's purists. 

"The Dutch competitions mimic the original scene. There, you don't get to sit on a board, and you can't come down. The winner is the last one to fall into the water," Mueller said. 
================

Cordoba, Argentina (La Voz del Interior):

An Argentinian actor took his clothes off during a press conference after a journalist accused him of hiding his own personality.

Fernando Pena reacted after criticism of his monologue radio show, called The Dirt, in which he plays seven different characters.

One journalist accused Pena of hiding behind the characters, saying: "I think your characters do not let us see the real Pena behind them."

Newspaper La Voz del Interior reports that Pena responded by saying he would prove that all of the characters came from his own flesh and blood.

He began taking off his clothes one by one, in front of about 30 male and female journalists, and called out: "See, this is me!"

Public prosecutor Gustavo Sandovi is now tring to work out whether Pena broke any laws with his performance at the press conference in Cordoba.
==============

New Delhi, India (Ananova):

An Indian man has set a new record for having the longest ear hair in the world.

Radhakant Bajpai's ear tufts measure 13.2cm, or 5.19ins, at their longest point.

The previous record was held by another Indian man, Anthony Victor, whose ear hair measured 11.5 centimetres.

Bajpai, a 50-year-old grocer, said he'd been inspired to try for the record by B D Tyagi, an earlier holder of the record.

He told the Hindustan Times: "Making it to the Guinness records is indeed a special occasion for me and my family. God has been very kind to me."
==============

Great Falls, Montana (AP):

A brood of ducklings have hatched in the plaza of the Great Falls Public Library, and the library's director named one of them after Melville Dewey, founder of the Dewey decimal system. 

The director, Jim Heckel, was adamant that none of the other seven ducklings be named Huey or Louie, after the famous Disney cartoon duck family. 

"There is no Melville Huey," he said Wednesday. 

Instead, he suggested that they be numbered 598.41, 598.42, 598.43 and so on after the location in the library where duck books are found. 

Members of the Great Falls Flower Growers found the well-hidden nest a couple of weeks ago while pruning the library's greenery. The mother duck could occasionally be seen swimming in the plaza's fountain in the evenings. 
===============

Chow
SuperChef
www.joeha.com