CUTE ALERT! Slow Loris holds a tiny umbrella

Eggs boiled in boys urine anyone?

Traditional chefs in Dongyang, Zhejiang province, eastern China, are trying to convince everyone that they're really not just taking the pee.

Spring eggs hard boiled in children's urine have been a treat in this part of China for thousands of years and now culture officials want to take it worldwide.

Chef Lu Ming said: 'The urine is gathered from local schools and the very best comes from boys under 10 years old. They pee in buckets and we collect it fresh every day,'

Then the eggs - which have official cultural significance status - are boiled in the wee, first with their shells on and then with them off for a day and a night before they're ready to be eaten.

He said: 'The eggs are delicious and healthy. They stop fevers and can help you concentrate if you're feeling sluggish or sleepy.

'We are having a big export push because we want people outside China to fully appreciate the delicacy of our cuisine.'

Story and source: Metro

THIS IS JUST WRONG!

Coka Cola Random Facts

• Coca-Cola made its world debut at the Jacobs' Pharmacy soda fountain in Atlanta, where it sold for 5 cents a glass in 1886.

• In the first year Coca-Cola creator John Pemberton sold an average of just nine glasses a day. The company now sells 1.4 billion beverage servings every day.

• John Pemberton died in 1888 without realising the success of the beverage he had created.

• Asa Griggs Candler, an Atlanta businessman, bought up the rights to the business between 1888 and 1891 for a total of $2,300. By 1895, the drink was in demand nationwide and Candler had built syrup plants in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.

• The men who served Coca-Cola at soda fountains were called Soda Jerks because of the jerking motion they made preparing a glass of the fizzy drink. They traditionally wore a white hat and a white coat or apron.

• Marathon cyclists were the first athletes to endorse Coca-Cola. World champion and Georgia-native Bobby Walthour appeared in a 1909 newspaper advertisement that now hangs at the company's World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

• Despite Candler's successes, he didn't fully realise the potential of bottled Coca-Cola that people could enjoy anywhere and in 1899, two lawyers, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, secured exclusive rights from Candler to bottle and sell the beverage – for the sum of only $1.

• Coca-Cola's first bottling plant in Asia opened in the Philippines in 1912. Coca-Cola's first bottling plant in Europe opened in France in 1919.

• The company, concerned by 'copycat drinks' focused its advertising on the authenticity of Coca-Cola. It decided to create a distinctive bottle shape to assure people they were actually getting a real Coca-Cola. In 1916, the contour bottle, which remains the signature shape of Coca-Cola today, was chosen for its attractive appearance, original design and the fact that, even in the dark, you could identify the genuine article.

• The Coca-Cola six-pack carton was introduced in 1923, an innovation at the time.

• The character Sprite Boy was introduced in 1942 – decades before the Sprite drink. Sprite Boy helped tell people it was OK to use the name "Coke" to refer to Coca-Cola, something the company had previously resisted.

• It took Coca-Cola 70 years to expand into new flavours: Fanta, originally developed in the 1940s, was introduced in the 1950s; Sprite followed in 1961, with TAB in 1963 and Fresca in 1966. In 1960, The Coca-Cola Company acquired The Minute Maid Company, adding an entirely new line of business – juices. The company now has an astounding portfolio of 500 brands and ’3,300 beverages’.

• Coca-Cola advertising came into its own with the, now famous, 1971 commericial featuring young people from around the world gathered on a hilltop singing "I'd like to buy the world a Coke".

• Diet Coke was introduced in the 1980s – the "era of legwarmers, headbands and the fitness craze" according to Coca-Cola's website.

• Coke was guilty of "the worst marketing blunder ever" in 1985 when it released "new Coke", changing the recipe for the first time in 99 years. In taste tests people had said they loved the new flavour, but when it was released to the market place there was an outcry from customers and Coke was forced into U-turn, bringing back the original flavour as Coca-Cola classic.

• The Coca-Cola Polar Bear was introduced in 1993 as part of the "Always Coca-Cola" campaign.

• Coca-Cola is the only grocery product to have had sales of over £1bn in the UK.

• Coca-Cola has spawned a number of myths, including that it was originally green (the bottle was green but the drink has always been brown); that teeth, steaks, coins and other items will dissolve if left in a glass of Coca-Cola overnight (they won't) and that traffic officers have used the drink to clean stains off roads after traffic accidents (there are no recorded instances).

Taken from: Telegraph

A bit of Summer as we leave Winter... FAILS!

Ah.... the smell of flowers, the sun popping out and fails!!

Ghost forces Kondhwa school to shut

Sultan Shaikh of Kondhwa is not willing to send his children to school. The children say they are scared to even step into the school as they feel it is haunted. Last Monday, almost all students of Lady Haleema Begum Urdu School, Kondhwa, fled after what they claim was supernatural activity in school.

Five days after the incident, the children are yet to go to school. “If you want to send your children to school then send them, it is not our problem,” this is what the school authorities said according to Shaikh who was bewildered at the claims of the school. Other claims by children include finding random death threats in their notebooks and also seeing an egg-shaped, white ghost on the blackboard.

The authorities of the school have suspended all classes till Monday as parents said the children were scared and did not want to go to the school.

Parvika Khan, the teacher who was conducting an Urdu class for Class 5 last Monday, asked a boy to read the text on the blackboard. But the boy said the blackboard was blank, and ran away screaming that he saw an “egg-shaped ghost” coming out of the blackboard.

It set off panic among students and led to closure of the school for the day.

“It is a conspiracy. Someone wants to defame the school. They must have prompted the boy. We have lodged a police complaint and have sought an inquiry into the matter,” said Rashid Khan, chairman of the Western Maharashtra Educational Trust, which runs the school.

Story and source: Indian Express