thenerdguy
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Dinner, where is thy sting?
Link
LONDON (Reuters) - A handful of hardy souls will descend on a quiet English village this weekend to stuff their mouths full of stinging nettles in a bizarre competition which started as an argument in a pub.
Combatants will gather at The Bottle Inn in Marshwood, southwest England, Saturday night to take part in the 9th annual World Nettle Eating Championship.
It is a mouth-watering prospect.
Competitors must pluck and eat as many leaves as they can from the feathery, stinging plants in the space of one hour. Their achievement is measured in feet and inches -- the combined length of the bare stems they discard.
"You have to adopt the correct technique to stand any chance of winning," said Shane Pym, landlord of the Bottle Inn. www.thebottleinn.co.uk.
"The art is to fold the top of the leaf inwards, get it past the lips, crunch it and then get it down the neck. You can't let your mouth get dry or you will get stung."
The championship has a short but colorful history.
It started in 1986 as a heated argument in the pub between two farmers who both claimed that the nettles at the back of their silage pits were the longest.
The landlady of the Bottle Inn intervened and declared an competition to resolve the dispute. Other farmers were also invited to take part.
Three years later, local man Alex Williams threw down a gauntlet to his rivals in the shape of a nettle measuring 15 feet 6 inches. If anyone could produce a longer one, he boasted, he would eat it.
For the next eight years, Williams was forced -- almost literally -- to eat his words. Each year, someone would step forward with a longer nettle and, each year, Williams would dutifully chomp his way though it.
In 1997, the event evolved in to a straight fight to eat the most nettles, a format which has endured until now.
The rules are strict.
Competitors cannot wear gloves and must eat the leaves of ordinary "Urtica Dioica" stinging nettles supplied by the pub. Beer is allowed but mouth-numbing drugs are strictly forbidden.
Around 40 entrants are expected to take part this year and while most of them are local farmers from rural Dorset, a few are coming from Ireland and Belgium to take part.
Last year's winner ate 42 feet's worth of nettle leaves while the world record is an impressive 74 feet.
"We've never had any serious injuries but we do have ambulance men standing by, just in case," Pym said.
"It can sometimes get a little bit contentious."
Woman Dumped Into Rear of Garbage Truck
Link
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - A woman searching for aluminum cans in a trash bin was dumped into the back of a garbage truck after the driver emptied the bin without realizing the woman was inside, police said.
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Wendy Cobb, 38, avoided major injury after a worker installing carpet nearby heard Cobb's screams and alerted the truck driver, who was about to press the compacting button, the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham reported.
Cobb, who said she's unemployed because of a bad back, said she doesn't collect cans unless she needs gas money. The trash bin was nearly empty so Cobb thought there was a low risk it would be emptied, she said.
Cobb was treated for an ankle injury. She also said she lost a cell phone in the fall Tuesday morning.
Framingham Police Lt. Vincent Alfano said the driver would not be cited. Dennis O'Connor, Central Massachusetts district manager for Waste Management, owner of the trash bin, said Cobb was at fault.
"(The bin) is private property. She was trespassing," O'Connor said. "It's kind of ironic, here she is digging for cans in a Dumpster, but yet she has a cell phone."
Cobb said she's angry with Waste Management and plans to talk to an attorney.
"(Waste Management) tried to get me to sign a waiver to say it was not their fault," Cobb said. "I said, 'No way.'"
Workers keep right to flirt
Link
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A German court has upheld the right of Wal-Mart staff in Germany to flirt at work, a spokesman said Thursday, showing that Germany's restrictive labor laws also have their permissive aspects.
The court rejected parts of Wal-Mart's code of conduct relating to employees' love lives, alcohol and drug use and a requirement for staff to report code violations via a so-called ethics hotline, the spokesman said.
He could not immediately confirm the grounds on which the Wuppertal employment court had ordered the clauses to be removed for German staff, saying the judge's opinion was still in the process of being written.
The Financial Times Deutschland said the court had found the clauses, including one banning "any kind of communication that could be interpreted as sexual," contradicted German labor law, in its ruling on the case brought by Wal-Mart's works council.
Wal-Mart Germany, which is based in Wuppertal and can appeal against the decision, had no immediate comment.
The ruling could have far-reaching effects for U.S. companies with staff in Germany. Such restrictions are increasingly common in U.S. corporate culture as firms seek to prevent scandals that could damage their reputation.
An affair with a female executive led to the downfall of Boeing's chief executive in March. The company fired Harry Stonecipher when the affair came to light, saying his conduct broke company rules and damaged his ability to lead.
'Butchered' waitress turns up alive?
Link
BEIJING (Reuters) - The children of a Chinese butcher executed for murdering a waitress have appealed against his conviction after the "victim" turned up alive, the second such judicial blunder to be made public in recent weeks.
Shi Xiaorong was 18 when she disappeared in 1987 at the same time as six pieces of a woman's body, sliced off "in a professional manner," were found in a river in southern Hunan province, a newspaper said Thursday.
Police arrested Teng Xingshan because he was a butcher by trade and because of rumors he used to go to the hotel where Shi worked to find prostitutes, the Beijing News said.
Hunan Provincial Court sentenced Teng to death for murder despite an appeal and a signature campaign by hundreds of local villagers and officials. He was executed by gunshot in 1989.
"He cried out he was innocent until he was at the execution ground," the newspaper quoted one of Teng's lawyers as saying.
Waitress Shi was later found to be serving a prison sentence with her husband for selling drugs, the newspaper said.
Wrongful convictions are not uncommon in China where a campaign has been launched to clean up the interrogation and trial process.
In April, She Xianglin was freed after serving 11 years of a 15-year jail sentence in central Hubei province for murdering his wife when she turned up not only alive but with another man.
Link
LONDON (Reuters) - A handful of hardy souls will descend on a quiet English village this weekend to stuff their mouths full of stinging nettles in a bizarre competition which started as an argument in a pub.
Combatants will gather at The Bottle Inn in Marshwood, southwest England, Saturday night to take part in the 9th annual World Nettle Eating Championship.
It is a mouth-watering prospect.
Competitors must pluck and eat as many leaves as they can from the feathery, stinging plants in the space of one hour. Their achievement is measured in feet and inches -- the combined length of the bare stems they discard.
"You have to adopt the correct technique to stand any chance of winning," said Shane Pym, landlord of the Bottle Inn. www.thebottleinn.co.uk.
"The art is to fold the top of the leaf inwards, get it past the lips, crunch it and then get it down the neck. You can't let your mouth get dry or you will get stung."
The championship has a short but colorful history.
It started in 1986 as a heated argument in the pub between two farmers who both claimed that the nettles at the back of their silage pits were the longest.
The landlady of the Bottle Inn intervened and declared an competition to resolve the dispute. Other farmers were also invited to take part.
Three years later, local man Alex Williams threw down a gauntlet to his rivals in the shape of a nettle measuring 15 feet 6 inches. If anyone could produce a longer one, he boasted, he would eat it.
For the next eight years, Williams was forced -- almost literally -- to eat his words. Each year, someone would step forward with a longer nettle and, each year, Williams would dutifully chomp his way though it.
In 1997, the event evolved in to a straight fight to eat the most nettles, a format which has endured until now.
The rules are strict.
Competitors cannot wear gloves and must eat the leaves of ordinary "Urtica Dioica" stinging nettles supplied by the pub. Beer is allowed but mouth-numbing drugs are strictly forbidden.
Around 40 entrants are expected to take part this year and while most of them are local farmers from rural Dorset, a few are coming from Ireland and Belgium to take part.
Last year's winner ate 42 feet's worth of nettle leaves while the world record is an impressive 74 feet.
"We've never had any serious injuries but we do have ambulance men standing by, just in case," Pym said.
"It can sometimes get a little bit contentious."
Woman Dumped Into Rear of Garbage Truck
Link
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - A woman searching for aluminum cans in a trash bin was dumped into the back of a garbage truck after the driver emptied the bin without realizing the woman was inside, police said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wendy Cobb, 38, avoided major injury after a worker installing carpet nearby heard Cobb's screams and alerted the truck driver, who was about to press the compacting button, the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham reported.
Cobb, who said she's unemployed because of a bad back, said she doesn't collect cans unless she needs gas money. The trash bin was nearly empty so Cobb thought there was a low risk it would be emptied, she said.
Cobb was treated for an ankle injury. She also said she lost a cell phone in the fall Tuesday morning.
Framingham Police Lt. Vincent Alfano said the driver would not be cited. Dennis O'Connor, Central Massachusetts district manager for Waste Management, owner of the trash bin, said Cobb was at fault.
"(The bin) is private property. She was trespassing," O'Connor said. "It's kind of ironic, here she is digging for cans in a Dumpster, but yet she has a cell phone."
Cobb said she's angry with Waste Management and plans to talk to an attorney.
"(Waste Management) tried to get me to sign a waiver to say it was not their fault," Cobb said. "I said, 'No way.'"
Workers keep right to flirt
Link
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A German court has upheld the right of Wal-Mart staff in Germany to flirt at work, a spokesman said Thursday, showing that Germany's restrictive labor laws also have their permissive aspects.
The court rejected parts of Wal-Mart's code of conduct relating to employees' love lives, alcohol and drug use and a requirement for staff to report code violations via a so-called ethics hotline, the spokesman said.
He could not immediately confirm the grounds on which the Wuppertal employment court had ordered the clauses to be removed for German staff, saying the judge's opinion was still in the process of being written.
The Financial Times Deutschland said the court had found the clauses, including one banning "any kind of communication that could be interpreted as sexual," contradicted German labor law, in its ruling on the case brought by Wal-Mart's works council.
Wal-Mart Germany, which is based in Wuppertal and can appeal against the decision, had no immediate comment.
The ruling could have far-reaching effects for U.S. companies with staff in Germany. Such restrictions are increasingly common in U.S. corporate culture as firms seek to prevent scandals that could damage their reputation.
An affair with a female executive led to the downfall of Boeing's chief executive in March. The company fired Harry Stonecipher when the affair came to light, saying his conduct broke company rules and damaged his ability to lead.
'Butchered' waitress turns up alive?
Link
BEIJING (Reuters) - The children of a Chinese butcher executed for murdering a waitress have appealed against his conviction after the "victim" turned up alive, the second such judicial blunder to be made public in recent weeks.
Shi Xiaorong was 18 when she disappeared in 1987 at the same time as six pieces of a woman's body, sliced off "in a professional manner," were found in a river in southern Hunan province, a newspaper said Thursday.
Police arrested Teng Xingshan because he was a butcher by trade and because of rumors he used to go to the hotel where Shi worked to find prostitutes, the Beijing News said.
Hunan Provincial Court sentenced Teng to death for murder despite an appeal and a signature campaign by hundreds of local villagers and officials. He was executed by gunshot in 1989.
"He cried out he was innocent until he was at the execution ground," the newspaper quoted one of Teng's lawyers as saying.
Waitress Shi was later found to be serving a prison sentence with her husband for selling drugs, the newspaper said.
Wrongful convictions are not uncommon in China where a campaign has been launched to clean up the interrogation and trial process.
In April, She Xianglin was freed after serving 11 years of a 15-year jail sentence in central Hubei province for murdering his wife when she turned up not only alive but with another man.
