magnaromagna.com » Strange News

Best job: beer tester

magnaromagna — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:02:21 +0000

A Tesco worker says she has the best job in the world – as the store’s chief lager taster, the famous beer. The lucky worker is Helen Moores, who has tasted more than a thousand lagers since she started the job two years ago. Helen who works at Tesco HQ in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, admitted her boyfriend is very jealous of her job. According to the Sun she said: “I certainly do enjoy my work – even though I sometimes have to start tasting lagers at 9.30 in the morning. The secret with the early morning tastings is to make sure you haven’t had too much the night before. “Wine tasters swill the liquid round their mouths and then spit it out. But with beer you only get the full flavour if you take a good swig and swallow it. Sometimes I sample more than 20 beers in a session – so I have to watch it.”
Via Ananova

Cannonball run record

magnaromagna — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:49:29 +0000

Extreme sports fan Alex Roy said Friday he had smashed the record for the fastest “Cannonball run” across the United States, defying police and speed traps.
The American driver of German origin set the record at the wheel of his blue BMW stamped with “Team Polizei” and traveled with a cameraman to document the event.
As in the 1981 movie “Cannonball run”, Alex Roy, 35, who waited a year to boast about his exploits and remains vague about the exact dates in a bid to avoid any prosecution, said he had blistered across 13 states in 31 hours and 4 minutes, breaking the old record by more than an hour.
Some data: 4,496 kilometers (2,794 miles) from New York on the East Coast to Santa Monica, California, on the West Coast at an average 145 kilometers (95 miles) an hour.
At times though he reached top speeds of 257 kilometers (160 miles) an hour, breaking the previous record set in 1983 of 32 hours and 17 minutes.
He also equipped his car with several GPS units, police scanners and radar detectors in a bid to avoid any speed traps.
He added that normally he’s a very careful driver who has only been given one speeding ticket in the past five years….
Do not try this at home!

China cook: poisoning that killed 6 accidental

magnaromagna — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:24:05 +0000

Cook kills himself, five others by making rat poison dumplings

Hubei Province, China, security officials said the poisoning deaths of six people were the result of a highly toxic rat poison being misused: a “chef” mistook rat poison for flour and mixed it into the dough he was using to make rice dumplings.
Two elderly people died within 20 minutes of eating the dumplings and six others were hospitalized soon after with symptoms of poisoning. The mistake was made by Chen Ruyan, who died too.
China is in the middle of a major crackdown on food and product safety in order to safeguard the health of its citizens and to prevent any further damage to its export reputation.
In a chinese restaurant, before starting to eat wait and see at the near table if they are feeling well…

Modern Toilet restaurant in Taiwan

magnaromagna — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:11:56 +0000

A diner in the capital of Taiwan is attracting clients with toilet humour: a chain of 12 restaurants with a toilet theme has opened in Taiwan. Seats in the Modern Toilet restaurants are toilet-shaped and napkins are dispensed from toilet rolls on tables. Enthusiastic customers get the opportunity to eat from mini plastic toilet bowls and wipe their hands and mouths using toilet rolls hung above their tables.

“Every detail tells you it’s a bathroom, not a restaurant. But it’s fun to eat here,” said one diner at a Taipei city outlet. Well, hoping the food will be better than the location…

The world’s biggest liar has been crowned

magnaromagna — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:30:44 +0000

John “Johnny Liar” Graham won the annual competition of tall tales, after telling a tale about a German World War II submarine invading Britain to capture digital television decoders. The 69-year-old claimed he stumbled across the U-boat as it prepared a raid on the nearby town of Whitehaven, which has become the first in Britain to switch from analogue to digital television. Graham, who has won the title five times before, also said he caught a cod that was 2.7-metres long. “It was a true story,” Graham insisted to BBC radio Friday. The event, which now draws tourists and competitors from around the world, is a homage to a local pub owner called Will Ritson, who regaled his regulars with shaggy dog stories in the 19th century. Among his claims were that turnips grown in the region were so big people could live in them. Recent winners have included one competitor who claimed the mountainous Lake District was formed not by ice or volcanic action but by large moles and eels. Another claimed to have discovered the existence of mermaid farms. Competitors have five minutes to tell the biggest fib without the aid of props. Politicians and lawyers are barred from entering as they are judged to be too skilled at telling porkies.. Source: ChinaDaily, BBC

The most expensive dessert in restaurant closed because of rats and roaches

magnaromagna — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:39:39 +0000

The infamous Upper East Side dessert restaurant Serendipity 3 was closed Wednesday when Health Department inspectors found rat droppings, a live mouse and more than 100 roaches. The restaurants was famous and original: recently the cost of a menù with particular dessert was of 25,000 dollars! An inspection Wednesday night found the restaurant crawling with cockroaches, mice and flies. Inspectors spotted a live mouse and mouse droppings in many areas of the restaurant, which is usually better known for its lavish desserts, like frozen hot chocolate.An inspector spotted a live mouse and mouse droppings, flies and more than 100 live cockroaches, the department said.

Strange to say, but maybe the MacDonalds is better…

video Miss South Carolina 2007 with Subtitles

magnaromagna — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:05:31 +0000

USA 2007: Miss South Carolina answers a question and imparts wisdom on world geography. So stupid, doh! Here the video of Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007 with Subtitles and the famous answer:

YouTube DirektLink

Question: Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?

Answer: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our …

And gets a second chance but.. did it again! Not so good for her… Se the video:

YouTube DirektLink

Non-Sense courses in USA colleges

magnaromagna — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:16:27 +0000

Strange degrees in United States: the taxpayers’ alliance discovers a massive expansion of nondegrees (courses with little or no academic merit). Students, in U.S.A. you could take a degree in adventure education (University of Chichester, 2 years), in equine sports performance, environmental hazards and visual culture (University of Brighton), and many others. And.. many of theese courses are over-subscribed and their graduates are without a job.

Universities have defended degrees labelled ‘non-courses’ by a group campaigning for lower taxes. The Taxpayers’ Alliance has called for subjects like equine sports performance and adventure education – which are both run at universities in Sussex – to be abolished to save public money being spent on providing them. In a report the group said £40 million was spent each year in Britain providing courses it identified as unnecessary.

A member of the alliance said that “If non-courses’ were abolished, all the other students could save more than £100 on their tuition fees or buy an extra pint of beer a week.” Doh! [www.magnaromagna.com - Via: TheArgus]

Buys fake cocaine and calls police to get refund

magnaromagna — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:51:53 +0000

A woman was arrested after she called local police to help “get her money back”: she purchased a “fake” crack cocaine!

Apparently a Rochelle woman thought so when she called the local police to help “get her money back” after she was unhappy with the crack cocaine she had bought Thursday night. Juanita Marie Jones, 53, of 957 Gordon St. called Rochelle Police late Thursday night after she purchased what she thought was a $20 piece of crack cocaine, she said. She told officers she broke the rock into three pieces and smoked one, only to discover the rock was “fake.” She told Officer Joel Quinn and Deputy John Shedd of the Wilcox County Sheriff’s Office that she wanted them to get her money back. Jones took the officers into her kitchen and showed them the alleged “fake” rock at which time they arrested her on charges of possession of cocaine.

Next time: a robbery who calls cops to help him? [www.magnaromagna.com - Via: cordeledispatch]

Stephen King mistaken for vandal

magnaromagna — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:53:23 +0000

Stephen King, the bestselling author, was mistaken for a vandal in the Australian Outback while secretly signing copies of his own thrillers in a book shop. The alarm was raised from a customer who noticed a man writing in several books.

Stephen King mistaken for vandal in Australian outback King has penned over 50 horror and fantasy novels. A customer at the Dymocks store in remote Alice Springs raised the alarm after noticing a man walk in off the street and begin writing in several books, manager Bev Ellis told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“As the owner of a bookshop, when you see someone writing in one of your books you get a bit toey [touchy],” Ms Ellis said. [..] “So we immediately ran to the books and lo-and-behold here was the signature in several books. We sort of spun around on our heels, (saying) ‘where did he go, where did he go’?” [..] Ms Ellis said five of the six books King signed will be given to community groups for fund-raising auctions. The sixth was bought by the customer who mistook King for a vandal.

Stephen King is one of the famous writer of the world and is not “popular”. If he was a idiot guy from the big brother this mistake would not have happened… [www.magnaromagna.com - Original: AFP]