Global Petroleum Club - Strange News

Pa. Trading Cards Highlight Brains, Not Brawn

gpc_admin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:27:51 +0200

Perennial college football powerhouse Penn State University is promoting glossy trading cards similar to those collected by sports fans. Only, there's no card for Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno or any of his Nittany Lions.

The 10-card set showcases top faculty members. Glaciologist Richard Alley is a featured academic star, as is entomologist James Tumlinson.

"We have many great faculty, and they are surely worthy of the accolades our society often lavishes on athletes, coaches, and celebrities in the entertainment world," school president Graham Spanier wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press....

The mouse that shook the world

gpc_phil — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:54:34 +0100

It can run for hours at 20 metres per minute without getting tired.It lives longer, has more sex, and eats more without gaining weight. Could the science that created this supermouse be applied to humans?

Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified "supermouse" with extraordinary physical abilities – comparable to the performance of the very best athletes – raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people's capacities.

The mouse (pictured on the front page) can run up to six kilometres (3.7 miles) at a speed of 20 metres per minute for five hours or more without stopping....

Student finds Artwork

gpc_phil — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:14:42 +0100

BERLIN - A German student who bought a pullout couch for $215 at a Berlin flea market found a painting worth 100 times that amount hidden inside when she unfolded the sofa at home.

The tiny 10- by 15-inch oil painting sold for $27,630 at a Hamburg art auction last weekend, Auction House Kunst Kettler said.

The work, "Preparation to Escape to Egypt," was painted by an unknown artist close to Venetian painter Carlo Saraceni between 1605 and 1620, the auction house said Monday night.

The student's identity was not revealed.

Billboard Draws Fire

gpc_phil — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:55:24 +0200

Cameron Adams made a U-turn to get a picture. "Don't Buy Gas From This Ass! That's what it says right there in yellow and blue and red." Once you spot the sign at Interstate 65 and County Road 287, it's hard to look away. Mickey Donaldson says he's never seen anything like it. "We just don't see ASS on the side of the road everywhere we go in America." Right now, you can find it on the side of the road in Bay Minette.
Tommy Rabon says it's just not right! "Little kids come down here then they be saying mama, what is this right here? You know, that just don't make sense." Pam Brooks at the nearby BP gas station believes it's bad for business. "Well if you're going fast, you'd think it meant the next gas station which is BP, not a Citgo!" ...

GOSSIP IS STRONGER THAN TRUTH

gpc_phil — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:32:42 +0200

October 16, 2007 -- LONDON - Gossip is more powerful than facts, a study showed yesterday, suggesting people believe what they hear through the grapevine even if they have evidence to the contrary.

In the study, researchers gave students playing a computer game money they could give to others in a series of rounds.

The students, meanwhile, also wrote notes about how others played the game that everyone could review.

Students tended to give less money to people described as "nasty misers" or "scrooges" and more to those depicted as "generous players" or "social players," says the research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...

Woman Trapped in CT Scanner for hours

gpc_phil — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:21:39 +0200

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - A cancer patient says she was left alone in a CT scanner for hours after a technician apparently forgot about her, and she finally crawled out of the device, only to find herself locked in the closed clinic.

Elvira Tellez of Tucson said she called her son in a panic, and he told her to call 911.

Pima County sheriff's deputies arriving at the oncology office had her unlock the office door to let them in, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a department spokeswoman. The deputies contacted the office manager, who was not aware of the situation.

Tellez was taken to a hospital as a precaution, then released early the next day....

Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host: report

gpc_phil — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:36:31 +0200

A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.
The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.

Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.

China Bans Bra, Underwear, Sex Toy Ads

gpc_phil — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:15:27 +0200

BEIJING (AP) - China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure- enhancing underwear and sex toys in the communist government's latest move to purge the nation's airwaves of what it calls social pollution.
Regulators have already targeted ads using crude or suggestive language, behavior, and images, tightening their grip on television and radio a few weeks ahead of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress at which some new senior leaders will be appointed.

The latest move by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, or SARFT, also bans advertisements for sexual aids such as tonics that claim to boost performance in bed. ...

Austrians Continue Fight for Chimp

gpc_phil — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:46:38 +0200

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- He's now got a human name - Matthew Hiasl Pan - but he's having trouble getting his day in court.
Animal rights activists campaigning to get Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person vowed Thursday to take their challenge to Austria's Supreme Court after a lower court threw out their latest appeal.
A provincial judge in the city of Wiener Neustadt dismissed the case this week, ruling the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories has no legal standing to argue on the chimp's behalf....

Russian Woman gives birth to 17.1 lb. Baby

gpc_phil — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:02:23 +0200

BARNAUL, Russia (Reuters) - A Siberian woman who gave birth to her 12th child -- doing more than her fair share to stem Russia's population decline -- was stunned to find that little Nadia weighed in at a massive 7.75 kg (17.1 lb).
Nadia was delivered by caesarean section in the local maternity hospital in the Altai region on September 17, joining eight sisters and three brothers, a local reporter said.
"We were all simply in shock," said Nadia's mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43. "What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing -- he just stood there blinking."...