Skateboarder branded by manhole cover

A woman who was branded with letters from the Consolidated Edison logo when she fell off a skateboard onto a searing hot manhole cover in Manhattan last year has filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from the utility.
Elizabeth C. Wallenberg, 27, was burned just above her buttocks and on her left arm when she fell off her skateboard onto a cover over a steam pipe at Second Avenue and 13th Street in the East Village shortly after midnight on Aug. 11, 2004, said her lawyer Ronald Berman.
“It literally looked like a brand that had been applied by someone,” Berman said about the burn marks left on Wallenberg’s body.
He said she was treated for the injury in the Beth Israel Hospital emergency room and was released.

 Cambodian turtle saved from soup

An extremely rare Cambodian “royal” turtle has been rescued from a Chinese soup pot by a microchip implanted in its leg, officials has said.
The interception of the animal in Vietnam on its way to China was hailed by international conservation experts as a major success in the war against smugglers of rare wildlife in Asia, whose prey often end up on Chinese menus or in traditional medicine.
“A very important turtle has returned home,” Doug Hendrie, the Asian turtle coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.
The rescue was “a clear and very positive example” of international cooperation, he said of a turtle which also inhabits mangrove forests in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Malaysia,.
The 33-lb (15 kg) turtle, one of fewer than 10 known to live in Cambodia, was discovered by inspectors in a crate of confiscated wildlife in Vietnam.

Bears wander into motels


Maybe it’s an early hibernation thing. A bear wandered into a Raton motel on day and a second bear broke into a Taos Ski Valley motel a day later. The bear that walked through the front doors of the Raton motel possibly was lured by the enticing smell of fresh popcorn, officials said.
“He walked in, went to the pay phones, then straight toward the pool,” said desk clerk Kimbra Pacheco.
Lodgers with newspapers chased the bear through an enclosed pool area until game officers arrived. A Department of Game and Fish officer shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart.
Department officers later killed the bear, saying it had been trapped and moved from Raton a few weeks earlier and had lost its fear of humans.
The second bear forced its way through a window screen Tuesday at a Taos Ski Valley motel. The desk clerk called 911, but the bear fled before the town marshal and game officers arrived.
 

 Caterpillars hunt like spiders


Tiny, snail-eating caterpillars found in Hawaiian rain forests tie up their prey with sticky silk and snack on them at leisure, surprised scientists have said.
It is the first time that caterpillars that eat snails or any other mollusk have been found, the researchers write in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
And while caterpillars of all kinds spin silk to make cocoons, this is the first time one has been seen to use it as spiders do to capture prey.
“Although all caterpillars have silk glands, this predatory caterpillar uses silk in a spiderlike fashion to capture and immobilize prey,” Daniel Rubinoff and William Haines at University of Hawaii wrote in their report.
The caterpillars of the newly described species, Hyposmocoma molluscivora, are small -- about a third of an inch (8 mm) long. Wrapped in their cocoons, they “lumber along” leaves, Rubinoff and Haines said.
“The caterpillars do not eat plant foliage, even when starving,” they wrote.
Instead, they hunt Tornatellides snails.

Police send nude shopper home


German police let a nearly naked shopper go home after she told them she was getting groceries in the nude because she lost a spin the bottle contest, a police spokesman in Cologne said.
“We’re a tolerant city that is open to the world,” said spokesman Burkard Jahn. “She could have been arrested for disturbing the peace, but we decided to let her go home with a verbal warning to dress appropriately next time.”
The 35-year-old Cologne woman entered the 24-hour shop at 4 a.m. wearing nothing but an unbuttoned jeans jacket, Jahn said. He said police decided to let her go because few people and presumably no small children saw her at that time of day.

 

 Dead find new resting place

It’s said the dead never really leave. In some Japanese homes, they literally don’t.
Ornaments made from the ashes of the deceased mixed with crystals or artificial stone are appearing on a growing number of sideboards as an alternative to costly traditional rituals and the expense of maintaining tombs often hundreds of miles away.
“Values are changing,” said Tsukasa Nozawa, a company executive who is also head of an association promoting the new business of “home remembrance.”
“People have questioned the need to pay huge sums for funeral rituals,” he said.
With an ornament at home, Nozawa said, people feel comforted. “They can talk to the deceased.”
For 156,000 yen ($1,400) -- about a tenth of the cost of a grave -- the bereaved can choose to have a portion of their late loved one made into a two-inch-high pyramid in blue, green or a choice of pastel shades.

Pupils no longer fail

The word “fail” should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase “deferred success” to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.
Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.
A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. “We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time,” he said.
“But I recognize that we can’t just strike a word from the dictionary,” he said.

Tailpiece

Condoms

A woman walks into a drugstore and asks the pharmacist if he sells size extra large condoms. He replies, “Yes we do. Would you like to buy some?” She responds, “No sir, but do you mind if I wait around here until someone does?”