China's pandas online

Calling all tech-savvy pandas -- China's biggest nature reserve in the foggy mountains of southwest Sichuan province is now wired for broadband.
Some might argue that the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, China's largest, is now ready for the world's first panda internet cafe, but the great digital leap forward is aimed more at panda protection.
Researchers are able to process real-time data on the pandas, including photos and video signals, around the clock at any given corner of the nature reserve, or observe giant panda cubs on a daily basis without having to step out of their offices.
"Digital technology has changed communication between Wolong and the rest of the world and will help promote information sharing on giant panda protection," said Zhang Weimin, director of the reserve.
"This will not only help increase the number of giant pandas, but also help us manage the living environment of giant pandas in a more efficient manner."
Wolong, founded in 1963, covers 200,000 hectares (772 square miles) and is home to 76 giant pandas.
 

Flying squirrel won't be ejected from Canada
Sabrina the flying squirrel has been allowed permanent residency in Canada after a government order to deport her -- which made made headlines around the world last year -- was reversed this week.
"I think justice got done," Clayton Ruby, a high-profile Toronto lawyer who led a campaign to change Canada's policy on importing squirrels and other banned rodents, said on Friday.
"They've passed regulation which says this will not happen again."
Naturalist Steve Patterson bought the squirrel legally in the United States last year and brought it to Canada to use for children's nature studies. Sabrina's entry into the country was eased by a customs blunder at the U.S. border.
On discovering the mistake, the Canadian government said the animal had to be sent back to the United States, citing a 2003 ban on importing rodents that was brought in after a monkeypox outbreak south of the border.
"I cleared customs. I did everything above board and so everything would be all right, I thought," Patterson said.
"My only recourse was to deny what they wanted, which was Sabrina out of the country. What else can you do? Give up? I don't think so."
Canada's Health of Animals Act was changed in November 2004 to allow for the importation of animals such as Sabrina for "educational purposes".
But Ottawa still filed a lawsuit against Patterson, lost, and appealed, before settling the case this week.
And Sabrina?
"Oblivious to the whole thing," said Patterson. "Poor little innocent squirrel. You just don't treat people like that. Or animals."
 

Strippers on public TV
Viewers in the state of New York expecting to see the latest local meeting on their public access channel got an eyeful recently when Cablevision played a tape of nude dancers accidentally.
The mistake affected customers in parts of Dutchess, Ulster, Putnam and Orange counties.
Hopewell Junction resident George Morton returned home from Palm Sunday Mass and turned on his television to see a striptease contest.
"I thought, this is terrible," Morton said. "I don't get HBO or anything like that."
Cablevision said Thursday it was not a public access program and that a "program switching error" occurred.
"When it was detected, the programming was removed immediately," Cablevision spokesman Bill Powers said. "We have taken appropriate steps to prevent this from happening again."
Morton said he planned to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
 

Oral sex not really sex
One in five U.S. teenagers say they have engaged in oral sex, an activity that some adolescents view as not sex at all and certainly less risky than intercourse, according to a report.
The survey of 580 children with a mean age of 14-1/2 found 20 percent said they had engaged in oral sex, compared to 14 percent who said they had engaged in sexual intercourse.
In addition, one-third of the multi-ethnic 9th graders surveyed said they intended to have oral sex within the next six months and nearly one-fourth planned to have intercourse during the period. It was more common for boys to have performed oral sex on girls than vice versa, the report said.
Previous studies and numerous campaigns aimed at deterring teenaged sex have focused on intercourse, but as many as half of adolescents experience oral sex first, the report said.
The risk of transmitting infections, including HIV, is significantly less with oral sex than with intercourse but is likely underestimated by teenagers, said the report in the journal Paediatrics.

Burglar steals and cleans up
A woman's apartment in the US was cleaned out, and cleaned up by a burglar, police said. According to police, the woman returned home Thursday after being away for a week and discovered her television, computer and other items missing. The burglar had also helped himself to food and booze.
But this was not a thoughtless thief. Police said the rear sliding glass door, which the woman had left open, was closed and locked when she returned. In addition, "clothes and dishes had been washed and dried," according to the police report.
Police Capt. Karl Leonard said it's possible the burglar knew the woman was going to be gone for a while and may have decided to take up residence in the interim.
"They probably didn't want to stay in a dirty apartment,' said Leonard, calling the case "very, very unusual."
"We've had burglaries in the past where people have fixed themselves a sandwich," he added. "But nobody's ever done the wash."
 

'Murdered' wife turns up alive
A Chinese man jailed and badly beaten for his wife's murder has been freed after she turned up not only alive but with another husband, domestic media have said, revealing a brutal arbitrariness to China's legal system.
She Xianglin's wife, Zhang Zaiyu, disappeared after a domestic dispute in 1994 and when a woman's body was found in a local reservoir, She was detained on suspicion of killing his wife.
The body was so decomposed it could not be identified, but a local court found She, a former part-time police officer from central Hubei province, guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.
A provincial court later commuted the sentence to 15 years in prison.
She, 39, was coerced into confessing to her murder and badly beaten in prison, the China Daily said.



 

Tailpiece

At any drugstore

Two old ladies were having a smoke, when it started to rain. One of the ladies pulled out a condom, cut off the end and put it over her cigarette, and continued smoking.
Lady 1: What's that?
Lady 2: A condom. This way my cigarette doesn't get wet.
Lady 1: Where did you get it?
Lady 2: You can get them at any drugstore.
The next day, Lady 1 hobbles herself into the local drugstore and announces to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms.
The guy, obviously embarrassed, looks at her kind of strangely she is, after all, over 80 years of age, but very delicately asks what brand she prefers.
Lady 1: Doesn't matter son, as long as it fits a Camel.