School doors glued shut

DELTONA, Fla. (UPI) -- A Florida school began classes 90 minutes late one Tuesday because officials were struggling to open doors that had been glued shut by teenagers.

Nancy Wait of Volusia County Public Schools said a surveillance video recorded three teenagers gluing the doors of Pine Ridge High School in Deltona shut overnight and officials are working to identify the culprits, WKMG-TV, Orlando, Fla., reported Tuesday.

Wait said the incident is not believed to have been a senior prank.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Stolen cop car found in parking garage

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (UPI) -- Police in Mountain View, Calif., said a police cruiser that went missing from a concert turned up two days later in an apartment complex parking lot.

Investigators said someone stole Car 3006 from a concert Friday featuring rock groups Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction and apparently took the vehicle for a joyride before leaving it in the garage, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported Monday.

Officers searched the streets of the city for the black and white Ford Crown Victoria after it went missing Friday and a police helicopter from the San Jose police department joined the search Friday night and Saturday.

A Mountain View resident called police at about 1:35 p.m. Sunday and said she spotted the missing police car in her apartment complex's parking garage. Police said the car was undamaged and a shotgun that was locked in the back of the car remained unmolested. However, officers said the keys were not with the car.

Police said they are hoping evidence gathered from the car will point them toward a suspect.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Man got 1,197 piercings in one day

ARLINGTON, Texas (UPI) -- A Texas body modification enthusiast said he broke a Guinness World Record by receiving 1,197 piercings in a single day.

Jeremy Stroud said Arlington body modification artist Tyson Turk spent about five hours May 2 inserting 800 needles into his back, 300 in his right arm, 50 in his leg and about 20 in his left arm, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Monday.

He said the needles were removed at the end of the day but they left scars all over his body.

"They're so close together that they leave a line. It kind of looks like I had stitches from my wrist all the way up to my shoulder," he said.

Stroud said two emergency medical technicians were on hand during the record attempt as well as a witness and a photographer to support his bid to make it into the record book. He said the original plan was 2,000 piercings, but the pain from the needles eventually started to catch up to him.

"I made it to 1,200 and my body was getting ready to shut down," he said. "I had no idea what I was getting into."

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Brits turn to wallabies for lawn control

BUNGAY, England (UPI) -- Wallaby breeders in Britain say demand is soaring as private land owners turn to the marsupials to keep their grass short.

Trevor Lay, owner of Waveney Wildlife in Bungay, England, said he used to breed only 15 animals a year for zoos and animal parks but since private land owners began buying the animals about five years ago he has been breeding 35 each year, The Times of London reported Monday.

"It's crazy. To be honest, if I had 100 I could easily get rid of them," said Lay, who has been breeding wallabies for 25 years and is the largest private supplier in Britain.

Fellow breeder Quintin Spratt of Tacolneston, England, said his business has also been booming as a result of people using them to control large lawns.

The breeders said prospective wallaby owners need at least half an acre of land with a lot of grass and a fence at least 5 feet high around the property.

"Anyone who can keep a rabbit can keep a wallaby. They are lovely, gregarious animals," Lay said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Overdue book back after 31 years

ARLINGTON, Va. (UPI) -- A Virginia library said a woman has returned a book she checked out more than 30 years ago.

Peter Golkin, a spokesman for the Arlington Central Library, said "The Patriot Chiefs" by Alvin Josephy was checked out March 16, 1978, and returned last Tuesday with a $25 check and a letter of apology, The Washington Post reported Monday.

"It's always great to get the books back, as opposed to any kind of income from fines or replacement fees," Golkin said.

Sarah McKee, 70, said she borrowed the book from the library so long ago that she had forgotten the book was not hers.

"To my great embarrassment," her note read, "I recently opened this book and discovered it is yours -- not mine. My apologies for my tardiness."

McKee, who now lives in Amherst, Mass., blamed the mistake on her poor memory.

"I never would have schlepped it around all these years had I not thought it was mine," she said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

LONGEST NAME IN MEXICO

Happy Family of Brhadaranyakopanishadvivekachudamani Erreh Muñoz


THE OFFSPRING WITH THE LONGEST NAME TO FOLLOW THE TRADITION OF FATHER´S NAME GIVEN TO SON


Parece mentira, pero es real. Un mexicano de Coahuila tiene el nombre "más largo" del país y uno de los más exóticos del mundo: Brhadaranyakopanishadvivekachudamani Erreh Muñoz.



"Brhada", como le dicen sus amigos, es un médico veterinario que lleva su nombre de 36 letras con mucho orgullo. Tanto es así, que ha llamado a su hijo de la misma manera, aunque con una pequeña variación.
El cambio consiste en que los apellidos Erreh Muñoz fueron fusionados en una sola palabra, razón por la cual los tres hijos del veterinario llevan el apellido Errehmuñoz.
Lo interesante de la historia es que el apellido Erreh fue un invento del padre de Brhadaranyakopanishadvivekachudamani.
El padre de Brhada se llama José Refugio. A este hombre originario de Jalisco le pusieron Refugio como una ofrenda a la Vírgen del Refugio, porque fue el único bebé que logró sobrevivir tras la muerte de sus cuatro hermanos.
clic Participe: En busca de nombres curiosos
La "R" de Refugio
El problema es que a José no le gustaba llamarse Refugio y decidió presentarse en la vida como José R, nada más. Así surgió el apellido R, que terminó siendo Erreh, y que ahora significa "esposo, refugio, rosario, esposa, hijo".
No contento con inventar un nuevo apellido, don José decidió ponerle a su hijo Brhadaranyakopanishadvivekachudamani que es, nada más ni nada menos, que la mezcla de los nombres de dos filósofos hindúes.
Al principio, don José no sabía cuál de los dos filósofos elegir y al final, tras muchas horas de divagaciones, decidió ponerle los dos nombres en una sola palabra.
Brhada le dijo a BBC Mundo que el nombre del primer filósofo significa "el hombre se convierte en lo que hace", mientras que el segundo, al parecer, no tiene un significado muy preciso.

¿Pero por qué su padre quería el nombre de dos filósofos?
Es que mi padre es muy afecto a la literatura hindú y quería comenzar una tradición que se perpetuara a través de los años. Por eso yo también le puse a mi hijo ese nombre.
¿Y profesa la religión hindú o su familia tiene algún vínculo con India?
¡No! (ríe) No tenemos ningún vínculo y yo no soy hindú.
¿Y entonces por qué le puso el mismo nombre a su hijo?
Para seguir la tradición de mi padre, nada más.
¿Y por qué transformó el apellido Erreh en Errehmuñoz?
Un deseo de mi padre.
¿Nunca pensó en cambiarse el nombre?
No, nunca.
¿Y no ha tenido problemas con ese nombre tan largo?
Solamente con la documentación oficial. Por ejemplo. en mi credencial de elector o en la licencia de conducir no hay espacio suficiente, entonces han tenido que hacer un "oficio", un documento anexo para escribir mi nombre completo
¿Y en la escuela no le hacían bromas?
No, uno se acostumbra a que la gente pregunte siempre las mismas cosas... que por qué tan largo, que qué significa y así, pero el nombre no me ha dado problemas.
Nombres exóticos
En México son muy creativos para los nombres. De hecho, nadie sabe qué estaban pensando los padres de algunas personas cuando les pusieron nombres como Zoila Vaca del Campo, Hitler o Michael Jordan.



Entre las rarezas, está el caso de una mujer que fue inscrita el 22 de abril de 1914 en el Registro Civil del Distrito Federal con más de 30 nombres.
Los que la conocieron probablemente la llamaban María Saldivar, pero su verdadero nombre era así:
María de la Asunción Luisa Conzaga Guadalupe Refugio Luz Loreto Salud Altagracia Carmen Matilde Josefa Ignacia Francisca Solano Vicenta Ferrer Antonia Ramona Agustina Carlota Inocencia Federica Gabriela de Dolores de los Sagrados Corazones de Jesús y de María Saldivar y Saldivar.
"Mi nombre es para siempre"
El Registro Civil de Coahuila está impulsando una campaña que se llama "Mi nombre es para siempre", con el objetivo de que las personas le pongan nombres a sus hijos que sean fáciles de escribir, pronunciar y recordar.
En el caso del Distrito Federal, el Registro Civil no ha inscrito nombres largos o particularmente raros en los últimos años y está más bien preocupado por agilizar los trámites.
Su más reciente campaña está centrada en la digitalización de 27 millones de actas de nacimiento, matrimonio y defunción.
Sin embargo, las autoridades han visto casos en que la gente no está feliz con su nombre y trata de cambiárselo.
Hegel Cortés, director de la institución, le dijo a BBC Mundo que las leyes permiten el cambio de nombre ante el Tribunal Superior de Justicia sólo cuando existen razones de peso.
"Una persona no puede cambiarse el nombre sólo porque no le gusta, tiene que demostrar ante un juez que le causa menoscabo o discriminación".
En el terreno de los "nombres normales" que no causan mayores inconvenientes, los más comunes entre los recién nacidos en la capital mexicana son Fernanda y Valeria, mientras que en el caso de los hombres llevan la delantera Diego y Santiago.


Es que mi padre es muy afecto a la literatura hindú y quería comenzar una tradición que se perpetuara a través de los años. Por eso yo también le puse a mi hijo ese nombre: Brhadaranyakopanishadvivekachudamani Erreh Muñoz

EL SUCESOR
El hijo del hombre con el nombre más largo sigue la tradición: lleva el mismo nombre que su padre!!

LANE CHANGING COMING TO SAMOA

APIA, Samoa -- Sometime in the early morning hours of Sept. 7, residents of this small Pacific island nation will stop their cars, take a deep breath, and do something most people would think is suicidal: Start driving on the other side of the road.

Samoa is about to become what's believed to be the first nation since the 1970s to order its drivers to switch from one side of the road to the other. That's spawned an islandwide case of road rage. Opponents have organized two of the biggest protests in Samoan history, and a new activist group -- People Against Switching Sides, or PASS -- has geared up to fight the plan.

The prime minister who hatched Samoa's scheme, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, refuses to do a U-turn. Road-switch opponents are just trying to rattle the government, he says. He has compared a prominent opponent of the switch to a local "avaava" fish -- a sea creature that swims in shallow waters and eats garbage, an insult in Samoan culture.

The main reason for Samoa's switch is that two of its biggest neighbors, Australia and New Zealand, drive on the left-hand side, whereas Samoa currently drives on the right, as in the U.S. By aligning with Australia and New Zealand, the prime minister says, it will be easier for poor Samoans to get cheap hand-me-down cars from the 170,000 or so Samoans who live in those two countries. It could also help more people escape tsunamis, says Mr. Tuilaepa.

It all "makes common sense," says Mr. Tuilaepa in an interview in his office overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the capital city of Apia. Mr. Tuilaepa, who sports a wave of fluffy whitening hair and wears flip-flops, has run the country for more than a decade.

Opponents and some outside experts fear the switch will turn many of Samoa's already-dangerous roads into disaster zones. Roads wind through mountainous jungle terrain with sharp turns, few traffic lights and pedestrians and dogs sharing the lanes. Critics say the switch will add further confusion with drivers likely to forget which side they're supposed to be on.

The move will also add costs -- like carving new doors into buses so passengers can get off on the opposite side of the road -- that critics say are unnecessary in a country heavily reliant on foreign aid.

For car owners, the switch is also expected to drive the value of their vehicles off a cliff, since about 14,000 of the country's 18,000 vehicles are designed to drive on the right. Although such cars will be allowed after the changeover, they are likely to become less desirable.

"To be really quite frank, we find [the change] ridiculous," says Sina Retzlaff-Lima, whose Apia Rentals rental-car company has 40 cars made for driving on the right side of the road.

Globally, about 70% of the world's population drives on the right-hand side of the road. But other parts of the world -- including many countries that were once British colonies -- remain committed to the left.

The root causes of the gap stem from preferences when countries developed their first road rules, says Peter Kincaid, an Australia-based author of "The Rule of the Road," which analyzes world traffic patterns.

Mr. Kincaid says American drivers of horse-drawn carriages tended to ride their horses, or walk alongside them, on the left-hand side of their vehicles so they could wield whips with their right hands. That made it necessary to lead carriages down the right side of the road so drivers could be nearer the center of the street.

A handful of countries have switched over the years, mainly to match up with neighbors that had different standards. Several former British colonies in Africa, including Nigeria, went from left to right in the decades after World War II. Sweden switched sides, from left to right, in 1967, while Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, did the same in 1970 for reasons that even today remain unclear.

Since the 1970s, says Mr. Kincaid, international road rules have remained largely the same -- until Samoa.

With only about 200,000 people and a handful of traffic lights in downtown Apia, Samoa is the western neighbor of American Samoa, an American territory. It is known for its close proximity to the international date line, which makes it possible for some visitors to arrive in Samoa the day before they left.

Samoa settled on right-hand traffic in the early 1900s, when it was under German control. But doubters long thought it made more sense to line up with Australia and New Zealand, and the prime minister agreed, unveiling his plan in 2007.

The idea caught on in some villages, where residents figured it would become easier to get old cars from relatives.

"In the beginning it will be hard, but we'll learn -- we're not stupid," says Leau Apisaloma, a 54-year-old village chief who collects entrance fees from visitors at a beach an hour from Apia.

In Apia, though, opponents are determined to fight the change. Having just taken delivery of an expensive Toyota Tundra from America in late 2006, local lawyer Toleafoa Solomona Toailoa shifted the resistance into high gear. With allies, he formed PASS and helped lead two protest marches, including one featuring a petition with more than 30,000 signatures.

The government refused to budge. Mr. Toleafoa launched his own political party, with plans to contest the next election in 2011. Supporters also took the plan to court, on the grounds that it breaches citizens' right to life by making Samoan roads too dangerous. The case is pending.

With the deadline approaching, the government is speeding ahead. It has added road humps to slow traffic and erected signs that, when unveiled Sept. 7, will remind drivers to stay left. In a TV address about the road change last week, the prime minister warned that "the only thing to fear is fear itself." He listed a series of other steps, including declaring Sept. 7 and 8 national holidays. The government has also set up a "training area" near a sports stadium where drivers can practice the fine art of driving on the left side of the road.

One recent Sunday morning, a bus was seen barreling down the right side of the road in the training area, the driver apparently oblivious to the fact that it was the wrong side. After nearly running head-on into a sport-utility vehicle, the bus driver swerved then returned to the wrong side of the road and chugged on.