Diners in China are overcoming their reservations by flocking to a new toilet-themed restaurant where business is booming.

Customers at the Modern Toilet restaurant, in Kunming, Yunnan province, eat on seats converted from toilets.
Urinals hang on the walls as decorations and signature dishes include ‘excrement ice cream’, ‘toilet bowl hot pot’ and ‘fried poo sticks’.

Owner Xu Liang says the restaurant has proved more popular than expected with students, in particular, keen to try the experience.
“We had a survey before opening, and 20% of people wanted to try it, 60% weren’t sure, while only 20% found the idea unacceptable,” he said. “Sometimes unusual combinations can work. A toilet and a restaurant are complete opposites but combined together they make for a unique experience.”

Regular customer Yang Siwen, a university student, has eaten at the restaurant three times since it opened two weeks ago.
“I originally went in because I thought it was a toilet but then discovered it was a restaurant and decided to give it a try,” she said.

By AFP

BERLIN – A two-metre (six-foot) marijuana plant decorated as a Christmas tree was confiscated from the home of “an old hippie”, who is now facing a drug possession charge, German police said Wednesday.

In a tongue-in-cheek press release titled “All you need is love or how a hippie celebrates Christmas,” police in the western city of Koblenz said they discovered the giant plant in the living room of the suspect.

“The two-metre-tall marijuana plant had been put in a Christmas tree stand and decorated with a string of lights,” the police said.

“When asked, the hashish fan told the perplexed officers that he had intended to add more decorations to the ‘tree’ and place the presents under it, according to tradition.”

Police seized the plant and another 150 grams (5.3 ounces) of marijuana found in the apartment.

German authorities on Tuesday said that a 21-year-old man in the southern city of Munich had been detained with a homemade Advent calendar with cannabis behind each little door instead of chocolate.

The suspect was released but now faces charges of possessing drugs

Spared lashes and imprisonment
By Reuters

KHARTOUM – A Sudanese court convicted seven men of indecency on Wednesday after police accused them of wearing makeup during a fashion show in Khartoum, their lawyer said.
The men, amateur models at the “Sudanese Next Top Model Fashion Show””in June, were arrested by the public order police, a body known for its crackdowns on perceived indecent dress and drinking in the Muslim north, one defendant told Reuters.
All seven were found guilty on Wednesday and each fined 200 Sudanese pounds ($80), as was a woman who faced the same charge for applying the makeup, said lawyer Nabil Adib.
“The court thought that they were indecently dressed … The judge thought that wearing makeup could be offensive for men and allowing a woman to put makeup on men was against the law,” said Adib.
The lawyer said he had argued in court that men, including religious preachers, regularly wore makeup for appearances on Sudan’s state television station.
The defendants could have faced a maximum punishment of 40 lashes and imprisonment, said Adib.
Sudanese U.N. official Lubna Hussein was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public after being found guilty for the same offence in 2009, a case that drew international criticism.

A wacky winter sport in which pub tables are raced at top speeds down a mountain slope has been invented by a group of boozy students.
The event was dreamed up when the sozzled scholars put their minds to work after finding themselves trapped in a cabin high up an Austrian mountain.To get out of their sticky spot they had the bright idea of flipping over a table and using it as a makeshift sledge.When they got to the bottom they promptly flipped the table over and continued drinking.Now scores of teams comprised of athletes and local celebrities have assembled to take part in a three day table-sledging event in Kuhtai, in the Alps, starting on Friday.One of the competitor’s said: ‘The great advantage we have over other sledgers is that when we finish the race we can turn over our equipment and have a great party’.

A blind man arrested for drink driving in the US is in even more trouble after he allegedly turned up to court drunk and fell over in the dock.

Mark Alan Watson, 41, of Bartlesville, Washington state, fell on his face in front of Judge Russell Vaclaw, reports the local Examiner-Enterprise.

Judge Vaclaw had just asked Watson to approach the bench when he reportedly stood up and paused before collapsing, striking his head on the jury box on the way down.

“Are you intoxicated?” Judge Vaclaw asked. “No, I’m blind,” Watson replied.

The judge asked a Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputy to administer a field sobriety test but Watson said he couldn’t take the test because he was blind. Instead he agreed to take a breathalyser test which he failed.

Watson was originally arrested after allegedly colliding with another car in Bartlesville and then driving off in the early hours of the morning.

He told police he had “felt a bump but was unsure if he had been involved in a collision”, according to court papers.

When asked to take a field sobriety test, Watson reportedly declined, saying: “I’m f***ing drunk. I’m blind anyways and I can’t drive.”

As police were placing him in the back of a squad car, he allegedly yelled profanities and kicked one officer in the knee.

He was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident, driving under suspension and assaulting a police officer.

Prime Minister Thorn

A Puerto Rican biker attended his own funeral on the back of his beloved Honda racing motorcycle.

Hell’s Angel David Morales – blasted to death in a gun battle in San Juan – left instructions that he wanted to be buried with his bike.

So undertakers mounted him on the machine, carefully hiding a series of body braces underneath his clothes and covering his eyes with wraparound sunglasses.

Finally they placed the display between two torches so mourners could pass by and pay their respects.

Morales’ favourite album – Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell, which has a biker bursting out of a grave on the cover – was also played at the service.

His uncle Jose Torres said: “He went out as he would have wanted. It was the last gift we could give him to honour his wishes.”

A spokesman for the funeral company Marín in San Juan explained: “It was an unusual ceremony – but we aim to please.”

Source: orange news

Stargate With A Twist

With the General Election happening here in the UK in less than two weeks and not being 100% sure of which party to vote for I decided to see if I could narrow the options down a little.

The most important thing for me is having an MP who will look after the needs and wants of the people who elected him/her. National party politics are all well and good but if the local MP ignores the people who put him/her in office then they will not get my vote.

I decided that I would electronically contact all the candidates who were up for election in the Congleton constituency. The methods used to contacted them was to first use social media (Twitter, Facebook) if I could easily find the respective persons details but if not to contact them through their web sites via email.

The results so far are as follows:

1. Paul Rothwell (Independent) Answered me via email after less than ½ hour

2. Adam Parton (Independent) Answered me via twitter after 3 hours

3. David Bryant (Labour) Answered me via email after 5½ hours

The above three showed exceptional speed in answering my question. Anything less than 24 hours shows commitment and dedication to their respective causes IMHO

The ones below are not looking to good.

The following three have not even bothered to get back to me yet. As of now 12:30 today 06/05/2010 that’s THIRTEEN Days, which is a lifetime in the digital age.

Fiona Bruce (Conservative) I contacted via email. #FAIL

Peter Hirst (Liberal Democrat) I contacted via twitter. #FAIL

Lee Slaughter (UKIP) I contacted via twitter. #FAIL

Now do these figures mean anything for you? Well that’s up to you to decide but I for one don’t want the person getting paid to represent me totally ignoring me. Do you?

More links

Paul Rothwell – Web
Adam Parton – Twitter, Facebook, Web
David Bryant – FaceBook, Web
Fiona Bruce – Web
Peter Hirst – Twitter, Facebook, Web
Lee Slaughter – Twitter, Facebook