Half eaten banana sells for Ā£1,650
LONDON (AFP) - A banana half eaten by a British television presenter has been sold for 1,650 pounds (3,000 dollars, 2,485 euros) in an Internet auction.
Kate Garraway, a presenter for the British breakfast television show GMTV, thought of the "quirky" idea during a television discussion about eccentric objects sold on www.ebay.co.uk.
Some 30,000 people reportedly made bids to buy the banana between July 4 and 11.
Jaime Falarczyk, who bought the item on Sunday, said that he will put the banana, or whatever is left of it, on display in front of his office "to generate a bit more fun".
Falarczyk, who works for an online brokerage company, said the money he paid is going to charity.
Kate Garraway, a presenter for the British breakfast television show GMTV, thought of the "quirky" idea during a television discussion about eccentric objects sold on www.ebay.co.uk.
Some 30,000 people reportedly made bids to buy the banana between July 4 and 11.
Jaime Falarczyk, who bought the item on Sunday, said that he will put the banana, or whatever is left of it, on display in front of his office "to generate a bit more fun".
Falarczyk, who works for an online brokerage company, said the money he paid is going to charity.
Man Jailed after shooting off his testicles
LONDON (Reuters) - A British man who accidentally shot himself in the testicles after drinking 15 pints of beer was jailed for five years on Tuesday for possessing an illegal firearm, a court spokesman said.
David Walker, 28, was arguing with a friend at a pub in South Yorkshire, northern England, when he went home to get his sawed-off shotgun, which he jammed into his trousers.
But as he walked back to the pub, the gun went off, blasting pellets into his testicles. Doctors later removed what remained of his testicles during emergency surgery.
Walker admitted possessing a prohibited weapon at a hearing in June at the court in Sheffield.
David Walker, 28, was arguing with a friend at a pub in South Yorkshire, northern England, when he went home to get his sawed-off shotgun, which he jammed into his trousers.
But as he walked back to the pub, the gun went off, blasting pellets into his testicles. Doctors later removed what remained of his testicles during emergency surgery.
Walker admitted possessing a prohibited weapon at a hearing in June at the court in Sheffield.
Novel ' to come out in SMSs'
A Chinese author is bringing out a novel that will only be available as a sequence of text messages.
BBC Online, quoting China's official Xinhau news agency, says Qian Fuchang has reduced his novel Outside the Fortress Besieged into 60 chapters of 70 characters each.
And pundits insists the novel, described as a steamy tale of adulterous love, will not be a gimmick.
Xie Wangxin, vice chairman of the Guangdong Literary Academy in southern China, said it will be 'a real literary work'.
Xinhua claims China sent more than 220bn text message last year - over half the global total.
BBC Online, quoting China's official Xinhau news agency, says Qian Fuchang has reduced his novel Outside the Fortress Besieged into 60 chapters of 70 characters each.
And pundits insists the novel, described as a steamy tale of adulterous love, will not be a gimmick.
Xie Wangxin, vice chairman of the Guangdong Literary Academy in southern China, said it will be 'a real literary work'.
Xinhua claims China sent more than 220bn text message last year - over half the global total.
So you think Big Brother has become too explicit...
British television is to sink to new lows with a reality game show based upon the exploits of a group of porn stars living in a Big Brother-style house.
Private Stars, which has been inspired by Channel 4's hugely successful Big Brother series, centres on the experiences of five female porn models who are locked in a house with five male members of the public.
The programme, which will run on cable and satellite television for 10 episodes next month, promises to go further than other reality programmes by offering "the real thing" in terms of sexual behaviour.
The contestants will be screened 24 hours a day as they produce their own X-rated porn film. The five men in the show, including one Briton, will be judged on their abilities to perform sexually with the women. Those judged to have done most poorly will be voted out, one by one, until a winner emerges. He will be awarded a full-time contract with a porn film producer.
Commissioned by the Bravo television channel, which is part of the British-based Telewest television company, the show will be produced by the Private Media Group, one of the world's leading producers of pornography.
The plan for the explicit show yesterday enraged MPs and campaigners, who condemned it as "a step too far".
There has already been growing concern over the behaviour of contestants on Big Brother, which was last week criticised for its lewdness. Channel 4 is under pressure to drop the show after two female contestants streaked through the house naked and another allowed fellow housemates to lick jam off her breasts.
These sort of antics, however, are likely to be eclipsed by the housemates in Private Stars. The show has been designed to maximise the amount of sexual contact in the house, situated in the red light district of Amsterdam.
Success for the men will depend on their willingness to lose their inhibitions and interact with the five professional female porn stars, two of whom are British.
John Beyer, the director of Mediawatch UK, a national campaign group that monitors standards in the media, said that Private Stars would just encourage immoral behaviour.
"What do the producers of this programme think is going to happen with a house full of porn stars?" he said. "Programmes like this send a bad example to viewers and they impact on everyday life. They explain why we have such a problem with sexually transmitted diseases and such a high level of unwanted pregnancies
Monday, July 12, 2004
Vy haff I got zees name ?
The Muenchner Postbank has frozen accounts belonging to Slobodan Milosevic - a Munich city bus driver. Officials thought he was the infamous Serbian war crimes suspect of the same name. Mr Milosevic, who emigrated from Serbia, said: "I tried to explain that my name is as common in Serbia as the name Hans Schmidt is in Germany. But they told me Hans Schmidt was not a war criminal. The other Slobodan is locked up in the Hague, so why would he have a savings account in a German post office? I asked them, if my name were Adolf Hitler would my account also be frozen? But it didn't help." The bank told him all of his accounts would be locked "due to mandatory legal prescriptions". They have given him a week to prove he is not the ex-dictator of Yugoslavia before his savings are seized for war reparations.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Blind flight record
An adventurer soared into the record book as he completed his bid to become the first blind person to fly around the UK.
Steve Cunningham, 41, completed a personal hat-trick which has seen him conquer land, sea and now air.
After being delayed by low cloud at Cardiff as he prepared to embark on the final stage of his round Britain journey, the father-of-two finally touched down at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire to a champagne welcome.
Len's huge pool takes a walk
Johannesburg - How does one keep one's head above water when thieves walk off with your swimming pool?
This was the question posed by Len Mayer, a contractor from Johannesburg, after his trailer carrying a "massive" swimming pool disappeared.
Mayer's swimming pool disappeared from the corner of Beyers NaudƩ Avenue and John Vorster Street in Randpark Ridge on Friday while he was with a client in the area.
"The trailer brought in wonderful business," said Mayer who had had his business for less than a month.
"Every day I received about five calls from people who saw it," he said.
According to Mayer, a street vendor said someone with a green Nissan bakkie drove off with his trailer - and the pool.
The pool, which stands about 3.5m high, would be worthless to the thief, said Mayer. "There are two huge holes in the bottom, where it was attached to the trailer," he said.
Beeld heard of Mayer's problem through eBlockWatch, an electronic system that warns people of crimes committed, via e-mails and SMS messages.
AndrƩ Snyman, eBlockWatch head, said Mayer's situation amazed him. "Something like that can happen only in South Africa."
He said that after the message was sent out, he was inundated with calls from subscribers who wanted more information.
But, Mayer does not find the incident funny. "In my heart, I hope to trace my trailer, but I am sure it has already been chopped up into pieces," he said.
He says the theft has probably cost him about R15 000.
"It's a huge step backwards for someone who only recently started up a business."
He has promised a reward for information that can help him recover his trailer.
This was the question posed by Len Mayer, a contractor from Johannesburg, after his trailer carrying a "massive" swimming pool disappeared.
Mayer's swimming pool disappeared from the corner of Beyers NaudƩ Avenue and John Vorster Street in Randpark Ridge on Friday while he was with a client in the area.
"The trailer brought in wonderful business," said Mayer who had had his business for less than a month.
"Every day I received about five calls from people who saw it," he said.
According to Mayer, a street vendor said someone with a green Nissan bakkie drove off with his trailer - and the pool.
The pool, which stands about 3.5m high, would be worthless to the thief, said Mayer. "There are two huge holes in the bottom, where it was attached to the trailer," he said.
Beeld heard of Mayer's problem through eBlockWatch, an electronic system that warns people of crimes committed, via e-mails and SMS messages.
AndrƩ Snyman, eBlockWatch head, said Mayer's situation amazed him. "Something like that can happen only in South Africa."
He said that after the message was sent out, he was inundated with calls from subscribers who wanted more information.
But, Mayer does not find the incident funny. "In my heart, I hope to trace my trailer, but I am sure it has already been chopped up into pieces," he said.
He says the theft has probably cost him about R15 000.
"It's a huge step backwards for someone who only recently started up a business."
He has promised a reward for information that can help him recover his trailer.
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