Somerset East

A man in psychological distress was found naked in a backyard after he had apparently cut off his own hand, police in Colorado said Sunday night.

On Sunday night, the Aurora Police Department tweeted:

APD assisted AFD on medical call where man severed his own hand. This was a non criminal incident and party was treated/transported by AFD.

— Aurora Police Dept (@AuroraPD) October 21, 2013

The Denver Post reported that a hand tool was found inside the garage where the individual’s left hand was also found.

Police and fire department officials responded after a neighbor reportedly saw the naked man in a backyard of a house on the 2700 block of South Mobile Street in Aurora, according to KDVR.

On Sunday night, the man was in serious but stable condition at Medical Center of Aurora South. His name was not released.

Also on HuffPost:

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• Potato Duck

  Dorothea Clinton who dug up a potato in the shape of a duck. Dorothea Clinton will be having ‘Quack-et Potato’ for dinner after digging up this funny-looking potato Sep 13, 2013. The 73-year-old, of Peaton, near Ludlow, thought it bore an uncanny resemblance to a duck, and wanted to show of the funny looking vegetable.

• Heart Potato

  Sally Colburn holds a heart-shaped potato that she found. (Wendy Victora / a href=”http://www.nwfdailynews.com/local/woman-receives-message-from-the-beyond-from-husband-1.184125?page=1″ target=”_blank”Northwest Florida Daily News/a)

• German Cops Seize ‘Strangest-Looking Convertible’ Pool Car

  On July 22, 2013, German police spotted “a convertible of a slightly different kind.”

  “I saw the strangest-looking convertible I have ever seen – a roofless BMW, without registration plates, bordered around the open top with wooden boards and fake plastic flowers. It was also full of water,” a href=”http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Drunk_inventors_caught_cruising_in_car_pool?WT.mc_id=ON_MEC_A_AffWin_SkimbitWT.tsrc=AffiliateWT.mc_id=ON_MEC_A_AffWin_SkimbitWT.tsrc=Affiliate” target=”_hplink”the unnamed police officer told Orange News/a.

  The officer observed four young men, clad in bathing suits, splashing around inside the bizarre home-made car pool. According to the police report, “All of them appeared drunk.”

  The car had been sealed with a synthetic material and filled with approximately 530 gallons of water.

  One of the men, a 27-year-old who police suspect was driving, returned to the scene to collect his wallet, police obtained a sample of his blood for a blood-alcohol analysis.

  The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed yet.

  Speaking with a href=”http://www.bild.de/bild-plus/news/inland/verkehrsstraftat/polizei-stoppt-rasendes-planschbecken-31511980,view=conversionToLogin.bild.html” target=”_hplink”The Bild newspaper/a, one of the men called the ride a “stupid idea.”

  “It was the first time we drove on a street and we just wanted to have a little fun,” he said.

• Penis Strawberry

  A mother has revealed that she celebrated Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory with a freshly picked strawberry – shaped like a PENIS. Carole Collen, 52, was pottering about in her garden in Dartford, Kent, this Sunday (7/7) when she spotted the cheekily shaped berry dangling amid her fruit and veg patch. Holding back the laughter she went inside to show her family before taking a quick snap to show her friends. Now the mother-of-two is planning to entering the strawberry into a raffle in a bid to raise money for charity.

• This photo released by the Glendale Police Department shows a black Cadillac that lost control and careened onto the roof of a neighbor’s home on Saturday, March 23, 2013 in Glendale, Calif. The Cadillac driver lost control before leaving his driveway, plunging off a hill “onto the roof of his neighbor’s house directly below his driveway. (Photo courtesy of Glendale Police Department)

• Third Eye Blind

  Tilde Nörgaard, a Swedish sixth grader, is still trying to figure out how she got a third eye in her class photo.

• 150-lb Boulder Crashes Through Car Windshield

  This 150-lb boulder crashed through the windshield of a rental car in Sedona, Az. The passengers, Bob Jaczko and Peter Wilson suffered minor cuts.

• Kid Has LEGO stuck in nose for three years.

  Isaak Lasson can finally breathe easy after three years of sinus problem caused by a single wheel-shaped LEGO that he got stuck up his nose back when he was three.

• Scrapyard Destroys Wrong Car

  Ben Forrer outside Sita UK, a scrap yard in Coventry, today, 25, 2012. Refer to NTI story NTICRUSH. Ben Forrer looked on in horror as a Coventry scrapyard crushed his van by mistake. Ben Forrer had only left his Citroen Relay for a few minutes as he dropped off an old cooker at the Sita yard, in Longford. But workers mistook the van for scrap and began crushing it in the jaws of a mechanical grabber

• Middle Finger Bush

  A bush carved into the shape of a middle-finger has landed a gardener into trouble after somebody failed to share his humour over the shrub. The council received a complaint about the shaped bush eight years after it was carved by Richard Jackson, 53, in his front garden. Despite only receiving one complaint, the council have since contacted Richard to alter the bush as it is considered a public offence. But Richard, from Tamworth, Staffs, said his neighbours are backing his pledge to keep the bush and they have even began a Save the Bush campaign to support him. Credit: Caters News

• Cathedral Licker

  A man has made a 5,000 mile pilgrimage to every Anglican cathedral in England so he can give them a good LICKING. Lawrence Edmonds has staked his claim as Britains first every cathedral licker by tongue tickling an incredible 42 in less than two years. Christian approval, Polish condemnation, and looks of confusion from a flock of Dutch tourists have all been experienced by Lawrence on his epic journey Back in January 2011, Lawrences friend Adam challenged him to a bet- that he couldnt lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK within five years. Credit: Caters News

• Baobab Tree Sculpture

  Mike De Butts adds the finishing touches to a giant Baobab Tree sculpture entitled ‘Under the Baobab’, outside the Southbank Centre on May 24, 2012 in London, England. The Pirate Technics’ installation is made from a selection of brightly coloured fabrics from around the world, and is part of the Southbank Centre’s ‘Festival of the World’ exhibition, which includes a series of large scale pieces of art that will be in place around the Southbank centre over the Summer.

• My Little Ponies

  Some of Sarah’s ponies. Sarah Butler, 28 from Barnsley, Yorkshire has been collecting 1980’s My Little Ponies for 24 years and now has over 1,000 of them as well as having a themed room in her house including My Little Pony curtains, bedspread and other collectables.

• Rapunzel Hair

  Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, is nicknamed Rapunzel because her hair is more than 5 feet long — just one and a half inches shorter than her height. In March, she planned to cut and sell the locks for some $2,600 to help get her family in Rio De Janeiro out of poverty.

• Moscow City Lights

  Swirling colors of city lights from a 900ft crane fill the Moscow skyline. Photographer D. Chistoprudov boards the crane, which is being used to build a skyscraper called Federation, and takes pictures over a period of two hours. Chistoprudov, 28, starts taking the swirling snaps around 1am and battles freezing weather to remain completely still so not to ruin the careful process. (Caters News / ZUMA Press)

• iPoo

  The sleek design, the impressive functionality, the distinctive logo – was it only a matter of time before Apple redesigned the humble toilet with the iPoo? The iPoo is literally a case of toilet humour and Belgrade designer Milos Paripovic makes the tongue-in-cheek claim his work isn’t intentionally related to the Apple brand.

• Tamaseseri Festival

  Naked men wearing only loincloths vie for a wooden treasure ball weighing eight kilos to bring good fortune, during the Tamaseseri festival at Hakozaki shrine in Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu on Jan. 3, 2012. Two teams of farmers and fishermen competed for the rich harvest or largest catch at a festival that dates back some 500 years.

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Heine Braeck, 33, from Sarpsborg, Norway, has been without an right arm since he lost it during a freak accident when he was 13. Now he has decided to make the stump look like a dolpin’s head with the help of Bulgarian tattooist Valio Ska.

• Giant Slipper

  A man who ordered a special slipper to fit his oversized foot was sent a size 1,450 – after manufacturers failed to spot a decimal point in his order. Tom Boddingham, 27, has a size 13 right foot while his left is slightly bigger and measures a size 14-and-a-half. But when he ordered his custom-fit slipper manufacturers in China misread size 14.5 and accidently made a whopping 7ft long size 1,450

• Eight-year-old girl is world’s youngest drag racer

  Eight-year-old girl Belle Wheeler has become the youngest drag racer in the world — just two days after her eighth birthday. The pint-sized dragster then went onto compete against youngsters more than twice her age and qualified for the UK National Finals.

• Lawn Mower Endurance Race

  Competitors race in the 12-hour Lawn Mower Endurance Race on September 24, 2011 in Billingshurst, England. First started in 1973 as a motorsport that would be accessible to as many as possible, this year’s competition included more than 30 teams including some from South Africa, America and Luxembourg.

• Pumpkin Art

  An employee arranges pumpkins to form a fish at the pumkin exhibition of the asparagus and experience farm Buschmann and Winkelmann in Klaistow near Beelitz, northeastern Germany on August 31, 2011. The exhibition will start on September 1 , 2011, with over 100,000 pumkins in 400 different varieties.

• Cable Car High Wire

  High wire artist Freddy Nock balances as he walks up on the rope of a Zugspitze cable car in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Nock walked up the 995 meters long rope with an altitude difference of 348 meters aiming at collecting money for the UNESCO. He is attempting to set a new world record by doing seven summits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in seven days. It took him about 90 minutes to arrive on top of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.

• Third Story Exit

  A 16-ton salt spreader blasted through the fifth-floor wall of a Queens Sanitation Department garage and came within inches of plummeting 50 feet to the street. The driver survived the spectacular 9:30 am crash, which sent bricks and debris raining down on cars parked outside the Maspeth repair facility, but spent 15 terrified minutes dangling in the cab of the bright orange vehicle. It’s unclear how driver Robert Legall, a 10-year Sanitation veteran with a clean record, lost control of the big rig. “There are signs up there warning drivers to slow down,” Commissioner John Doherty told the New York Post. “He’s familiar with the rules. We think it was just an unfortunate accident.”

• Speed Record Spins Out

  Driver Joe Wales crashes through the surf after veering off course during an attempt on the British land speed record for battery-powered vehicles in the Bluebird Electric on Pendine Sands on August 14, 2011 in Pendine, Wales. Driver Joe Wales and his father, fellow driver Don Wales, come from a famous family who have been setting land and water speed records since 1924. Don holds the current UK record of 137 miles an hour in an electric vehicle.

• Giant Cabbage

  Harrogate Autumn Flower show Director Martin Fish with a giant cabbage, as he introduced a series of new classes for Giant Vegetables to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Show. Giant onions, tomatoes and many others will all compete for the top prize of the biggest vegetable.

• Keep Claer

  An incorrectly spelled “Keep Clear” road marking is pictured in Kingswinford, on August 3, 2011 in West Midlands, England.

• Etna Volcano lava

  Lava spewed from a crater of the giant Etna volcano in the southern Italy island of Sicily on July 30, 2011 in Catania. The lava flown into a valley overnight and did not represent a danger to inhabited areas. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet) which last eruption was in May.

• Killer Plant Eats Bird

  An exotic plant expert was stunned when he inspected one of his garden
  pitcher plants and discovered it had eaten a blue tit.
  Prize winning Nigel Hewitt Cooper one of Britain’s leading carnivorous plant
  growers, from West Pennard, Somerset, couldn’t believe his eyes when he
  checked the Nepenthes x mixta or Monkey Cup pitcher and found the dead bird
  inside.
  Normally the plants which are native to south east Asia consume insects
  which thy attract by secreting a sticky, sweet fluid at the bottom of the
  pitcher.
  Sometimes in the wild they have been known to kill small mammals like mice
  but Mr Hewitt Cooper who regularly wins prizes at the Chelsea flower show
  says for a cultivate plant to capture a bird is incredible.

• Giant Mermaid

  A man adjusts a sculpture “Giant Mermaid” on the Alster lake in the northern German city of Hamburg on August 1, 2011. The sculpture is created by art and advertising agency headed by Oliver Voss.

• Huge Pastry

  People look at a huge khachapuri (Georgian cheese pastry) in central Batumi on July 28, 2011. The cake was baked using 100 eggs, 90 kilograms of cheese, 150 kilograms of flour, has 8 meters length and was eaten within 1minute 32 seconds by people at a street.

• Velomobiles

  Velomobiles, recumbent bicycles with sleek, colorful outer shells, head for the open road in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 28, 2011. Twenty five riders from Europe and twenty five riders from North America are on a cross-country trip which will finish on the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington D.C. on August 26. The bikers are trying to spread the message that sustainable, clean transportation can be fun.

• Bobblehead Bishop

  Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman has been immortalized in miniature with a bobblehead doll made in his likeness. The bobblehead comes as Trautman prepares to end his tenure as bishop of Erie.

• Canadian bubble artist

  Canadian bubble artist Yang Fan, who has set world record by packing 118 people inside a soap bubble, performs at the Gazillion bubble show in Beijing on July 19, 2011. Yang has earned international acclaim as a result of his complex displays of “bubble theater”. In addition to performing he has developed his own bubble solution formulas and equipment to create bubbles.

• Giant Marilyn

  Newly-wed bride Magda Villasenor looks at “Forever Marilyn”, a sculpture by Seward Johnson, on July 15, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The stainless steel and aluminum sculpture, which stands 26 feet tall and weighs 34,000 pounds, will be on display in Chicago through the spring of 2012. The sculpture was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene in the 1955 movie “Seven Year Itch”.

• Hot Dog Hot Rod

  The iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile vehicle is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange as part of its day-long 75th birthday celebration, Monday, July 18, 2011. To commemorate the milestone, the Oscar Mayer brand rang the closing bell at NYSE. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Oscar Mayer)

• Harry Potter Corn Maze

  An aerial view of Top Pearsy’s Maize Maze in the shape of Harry Potter, on July 11, 2011 in York, England. Farmer Tom Pearcy has cut two portraits of Harry Potter in his crop of maize plants. With some subtle differences the two images create the world’s largest spot the difference competition. At over 50m in diameter, and cut out of over 1 million living maize plants, the York Maze is the largest ‘Maize Maze’ in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

• Recycled Sailboat

  A sail boat made of recycled material makes its maiden voyage to mark World Oceans Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

• Pontiac Deluxe Six ‘Ghost Car’

  An extraordinary transparent car could fetch as much as GBP 295,000 when it goes up for auction.The motor, dubbed the ‘Ghost Car’, is a Pontiac Deluxe Six which has been covered in Plexiglas. The first transparent full-sized car to be made in America, it was built in 1939 by General Motors and chemical company Rohm and Haas. Billed as a vision of the future, it was a sensation at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair and continues to cause a stir today. Just two were ever made and this model, which has a three-speed manual transmission, is thought to be the last of its kind. It has clocked up just 86 miles in its lifetime; and now its set to go on sale for the first time since the early 1980s. It last sold for an undisclosed amount. American auctioneers RM expect it to sell for between $275,000 and $475,000.

• Serbian Brides Race

  Serbian women take part in a wedding dress race in downtown Belgrade on June 19, 2011. More than fifty “brides” took part in an annual wedding dress race in the Serbian capital, competing for numerous prizes. (Andrej Isakovic, AFP/Getty Images)

• World Naked Bike Ride

  People take part in the annual “London World Naked Bike Ride” event in central London on June 11, 2011. Now in it’s eighth year, the event has seen participation grow from 58 in 2004 to 1,200 in 2009. Taking a route that passes many of London’s most famous landmarks, the ride allows those participating to decorate their body with messages of protest against oil dependancy and motor vehicle usage.

• Hanging Around

  British artist Alice Newstead hangs by shark hooks during her demonstration to protest against shark slaughter in Hong Kong on June 14. The protest was organized by marine conservation group Shark Savers, and supported by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics who are launching a global campaign to protect the sharks.

• Reptile House

  Diska Putra, holds one of his snakes in bed at home on June 10, 2011 in Bintan, Indonesia. Putra, 24, cohabitates in Indonesian with a collection of 30 snakes, some of which are deadly poisonous.

• Monkey God

  An Indian priest walks outside the temple of Hindu monkey God Hanuman in New Delhi early June 12, 2011. The highly popular monkey-god Hanuman known for his strength is worshipped for his unyielding devotion and selfless dedication to the Lord Rama.

• Big Baby

  Ron Mueck’s ‘Big Baby’ sculpture is displayed in front of Jenny Saville’s painting ‘Interfacing’ at the Masterpieces Exhibition at Christie’s on June 13, 2011 in London, England.

• Drunken Knight

  A would-be knight who tried to woo a maiden by riding into her home on a horse is facing five years behind bars for aggravated burglary. Lovelorn Jan Rudnicki, 40, hatched the scheme to bowl over divorcee Gosia Domoslawska after a night’s drinking down his local bar in Jarnoltowka, Poland. But terrified Gosia, 36, dialed 999 when her drunken suitor – stripped to the waist – galloped up her garden path and smashed his way through the front door like a battering ram.

• Sideshow Fat Man Dies

  Bruce Snowdon, the last sideshow fat man, was honored in a memorial service on Jan. 30, 2010. Snowdon performed as “Harold Huge,” and weighed 607 pounds (though by some billing he tipped the scale at 712 pounds). Here he is with fellow sideshow star Peter Terhurne, a fire-eating dwarf.

• So, What Do You Do For a Living?

  Mexican tattoo artist and trained lawyer Maria Jose Cristerna, known as “Vampire Woman”, attends the Fifth International Tattoo Convention in Bogota, Colombia, on June 4, 2011.

• It’s All Fun And Games…

  A Sufi Kalandar (wandering ascetic) performs an act of self torture during devotion at the annual death anniversary of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India on June 2.

WARREN — A Warren woman has taken the regional crown in one of the largest international pageants in the world and is well on her way to the international competition in Florida.

Brielle LaCosta, 28, was crowned Miss East Coast International on Oct. 5 at the Villa Roma Resort in Calico, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains. She will compete for the title of Miss International on Aug. 1 and 2, 2104 at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts in Jacksonville, Fla.

LaCosta will be there for a full week, competing in events with contestants from as far away as Australia, India, Ghana, New Zealand, Haiti, Mexico, South Africa and more, she said.

“I am excited about my year as Miss East Coast International and I plan on working with several organizations to bring awareness to an array of causes,” LaCosta said. “I have several causes that are close to my heart including animal shelters, raising awareness for cancer, heart disease, and helping young women with peer pressure and self esteem.”

LaCosta’s reign as Miss East Coast International will run for a full year as she makes public appearances and participates in community service activities until the August international pageant.

LaCosta currently resides in Warren with her father Dennis LaCosta and her mother Dawn LaCosta, as well as younger brother Sean LaCosta. They share their home with her two rescue cats, Pumpkin and Panda, a rescue puppy named Bruno, and her parents’ three rescue dogs.

A former Berkeley Heights resident, LaCosta is a 2003 Governor Livingston High School graduate who also graduated Rutgers University in New Brunswick in 2008 with a degree in psychology.

“I actually was named one of their 2010 Outstanding Alumnae and was a guest speaker at their annual Zagoren Lecture,” LaCosta said. “That was an incredible experience.”

LaCosta knows her way around the pageant stage, having been crowned Miss New Jersey International in 2010. During her reign, she participated in more than 100 charity events, and expects to do even more with her regional title.

Her main platform is “Autism Awareness,” a cause she has worked on for years and one for which she has been recognized worldwide.

“I have worked with over 30 different organizations in the past few years, and I appear with other causes besides Autism — animal shelters, cancer, baseball games, schools, golf tournaments,” LaCosta said. “Basically if it’s to raise money for a cause or educate people, I’m there!”

LaCosta plans to continue as an Autism advocate and fundraiser as she has since 2007 despite having no personal connection to the cause.

“I simply fell in love with it and think those diagnosed are incredible people, ” Locasta said.

She plans on staying grounded, and never letting the pageant wins go to her head.

“With the negative stigma beauty pageants have, I try to go above and beyond so people know I am a real person too and am in no way “above” anyone,” LaCosta said.

“I am so humbled and thrilled to have been given this opportunity to raise awareness for organizations and causes close to my heart,” LaCosta said. “I am so looking forward to my year ahead and would like to make over 150 appearances. My new title really opened up the door for me and I would love to make appearances throughout the east coast.”

“I also want to encourage youth to dream big — anything is possible with dedication and hard work,” she said.

For more information about LaCosta and her causes, visit her personal website, her Facebook page, as well as her House of Motivation page for young girls.

The end of the government shutdown means a huge sigh of relief for thousands of furloughed federal workers, government contractors, and local businesses that cater to them.

For tourists, and locals looking for a bargain, it also means the return of free movie screenings at the government-funded museums that were shuttered during the 16-day standoff.

And not a moment too soon.

With Halloween just a couple of weeks away, the Library of Congress is beginning a series of spooky movies at its Culpeper theaters.

And now that the fiscal crisis is averted, you can see one of the most aesthetically-pleasing movies about an actual apocalypse at the National Gallery of Art this weekend.

Here’s the full list of free movies for the week starting Saturday, Oct. 19th.

Saturday:

• 2pm: Life of Pi (2012). The Oscar-winning adaptation of the fanciful novel about a boy marooned on a small boat, his only companion a Bengal tiger. An Oscar film screening at Burke Branch Library, 4701 Seminary Rd., Alexandria, Va.
• 2:30pm: The Island of St. Matthews (2012). A man tries to piece together his family history, swept away in a 1973 flood, in this documentary. Playing at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building auditorium, 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
• 7pm: a spooky double-feature. Hocus Pocus (1993) for the kids, and The Shining(1980) after the kids (hopefully) drift to sleep. A Halloween Film Fest at Rosslyn’s Gateway Park, 1300 Lee Hwy., Arlington, Va.
• 7:30pm: Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). An invalid woman thinks she hears a murder plot against her in a chance phone call. Part of the series “Monsters, Mischief and the Movies” at the Library of Congress Packard Theater, 19053 Mount Pony Rd., Culpeper, Va.
• 8:30pm: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Soulless aliens replace the townsfolk in this B-movie classic. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Sunday:

• 1:30pm: The Avengers (2012). The blockbuster that put Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor in the same movie. Part of the Super Hero Sunday film series at Francis A. Gregory Library, 3660 Alabama Ave., SE.
• 2pm: Beijing Flickers (2012). As a New York Times review put it, “a deadpan gaze at the down and out in China.” Part of the Global Lens film series at Lamond-Riggs Library, 5401 South Dakota Ave., NE.
• 2pm: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966). A small-town newspaper worker (Don Knotts) fulfills his dream to be a real reporter by spending a night in a house that may be haunted. Part of the series “Monsters, Mischief and the Movies” at the historic State Theatre, 311 S. Main St., Culpeper, Va.
• 2pm: 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007). An anime in three parts that follows one character’s coming of age. Part of the series “Pages of Beauty and Madness: Japanese Writers Onscreen” at the Freer Gallery’s Meyer Auditorium, 1050 Independence Ave., SW.
• 2:30pm: Prince Among Slaves (2008). The real story of a west African prince who’s sold into slavery in the US in 1788. Part of the special documentary series “Muslim Journeys” at Georgetown Library, 3260 R St., NW.
• 4pm: a double-feature. L’Age D’Or (1930), one of the first French talkies, targets the repressive sexual mores of that time. It’s followed at 5:30 by Melancholia (2011), Lars Von Trier’s meditative look at one broken family as the world is about to end. Part of the series “Richard Wagner Revisited” at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
• 8pm: Young Guns II (1990). Billy the Kid and his crew stay one step ahead of Pat Garrett in this sequel. Part of the “Christian Slater Tribute!” at Tallula EatBar, 2761 Washington Blvd., Arlington, Va.
• 8:30pm: The Philadelphia Story (1940). A love triangle forms among a rich woman, her ex-husband and a tabloid reporter. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Monday:

• 2pm: The Parade (2011). The struggle to organize a gay pride parade in war torn Serbia. Replays at 6:30pm. Part of the Global Lens film series at DC’s Chevy Chase Library, 5625 Connecticut Ave., NW.
• 6pm: About 111 Girls (2012). An Iranian official tries to stop a mass suicide of a huge group of unmarried women. Part of the Global Lens film series at Southeast Library, 403 7th St., SE.
• 6pm: Labyrinth (1986). A young girl has to rescue her baby brother from the clutches of a goblin king who’s trapped him inside a treacherous maze. A Fantasy Flick at Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G St., NW.
• 6pm: Grand Hotel (1932). A luxury hotel where “nothing ever happens”? Not on your life. Part of the series “Joan Crawford: Hollywood Star” at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
• 8pm: Evil Laugh (1986). Bad things linger inside a house where a murder took place ten years ago. Hosted by the Washington Psychotropic Film Society at McFadden’s, 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
• 8:30pm: Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). The semi-biographical tale starring Burt Lancaster as a federal inmate with a thing for feathered friends. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Tuesday:

• 12pm: Kingdom of the Oceans: Giants of the Deep (2013). A National Geographic documentary about the world of blue whales. Part of Tuesdays at Noon at the National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St., NW.
• 7pm: Symphony of the Soil (2012). A documentary about the dirt that makes life possible. A $10 donation is requested at Bloombars, 3222 11th St. NW. RSVP here.
• 8:30pm: Elmer Gantry (1960). Burt Lancaster plays a con man-turned-street preacher. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Wednesday:

• 12:30pm: Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture (2007). A documentary about the life of one of America’s most celebrated public artists. Playing at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building auditorium, 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
• 6:30pm: Rosemary’s Baby (1968). New motherhood can be a devil of a time. Retro Movie Night at Petworth Library, 4200 Kansas Ave., NW.
• 7:30pm: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). A second screening this week, it’s part of the series “Monsters, Mischief and the Movies” at the historic State Theatre, 311 S. Main St., Culpeper, Va.
• 8:30pm: Serpico (1973). A true story starring Al Pacino as a whistleblowing New York City cop. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Thursday:

• 12:30pm: Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture (2007). A rescreening at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building auditorium, 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
• 6pm: I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009). A hard-living nightclub singer reluctantly takes in her delinquent nephews. Part of the Tyler Perry Film Series at William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library, 115 Atlantic St. SW.
• 7pm: Cairo 678 (2010). Three women face the daily ordeal of sexual harassment in Egypt. Part of the Global Lens film series at Dorothy I. Height/Benning Library, 3935 Benning Rd., NE.
• 7pm: Anime Club at the East Columbia Library, 6600 Cradlerock Way, Columbia, Md.
• 7pm: You’ll Find Out (1940). A big band holds a birthday party in a spooky mansion. A World War II musical at the Bull Run Regional Library, 8051 Ashton Ave., Manassas, Va.
• 7:30pm: The Uninvited (1944). A composer and his sister find something sinister in their English seaside villa. Part of the series “Monsters, Mischief and the Movies” at the Library of Congress Packard Theater, 19053 Mount Pony Rd., Culpeper, Va.
• 8pm: Consequence (Gegenwart) (2012). A look at the daily ins and outs of s German crematorium. Playing at the Hirshhorn Museum’s Ring Auditorium, 700 Independence Ave., SW.
• 8:30pm: Of Human Bondage (1934). The film that made Bette Davis a star, adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham novel. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Friday:

• 2pm: Islamic Art Spots. Seven short films about Muslim art. Part of the special documentary series “Muslim Journeys” at Georgetown Library, 3260 R St., NW.
• 3pm: The Raven (1963). Starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff as rival sorcerers. Part of the Vincent Price film series at Francis A. Gregory Library, 3660 Alabama Ave., SE.
• 7:30pm: Fright Night (1985). No one believes a teen who says his next-door neighbor is a vampire. Part of the series “Monsters, Mischief and the Movies” at the Library of Congress Packard Theater, 19053 Mount Pony Rd., Culpeper, Va.
• 8:30pm: Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis team up to break up a jazz musician’s romance. Free with dinner purchase at American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW.

CAPE TOWN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) — South Africa expects 350 million new international tourist arrivals by 2020 and 1.8 billion by 2030, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Friday.

What makes tourism so unique is its multiplying effect in contributing to gross domestic product and job creation, van Schalkwyk said on the occasion of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) General Assembly, in Somerset West, about 40 km east of Cape Town.

For every one dollar spent on travel and tourism, 3.2 dollars are generated in GDP across the entire economy. And for each job in the tourism sector, approximately two jobs are created in the broader economy, according to the minister.

A powerful tectonic shift is under way as economic and political power is moving from the North to the South and from the West to the East, he said.

“As emerging markets, we are not only source markets; we are destinations as well. Over the next 20 years, international tourist arrivals in emerging-economy destinations are expected to grow at double the pace of advanced-economy destinations,” van Schalkwyk said.

In a mere two years from now, South Africa will be at the crossing point where inbound tourism to emerging-market destinations will exceed that to the advanced economies, he said.

He said this growth in emerging-market travel propensity will also drive new demand for aircraft. Today, on average a fifth of the population of the emerging markets take a flight ever year. Within two decades, on the back of a rising middle class, this will swell to two thirds of the emerging-market population.

The shift in geographic markets also overlaps with the megatrend of urbanization.

“By 2030, we expect 60 percent of the world’s population to have urbanized, which translates into at least a billion more city dwellers than at present,” the minister said. “Every year, the 65 million people urbanizing around the world are equivalent to adding five cities the size of London. These new cities are springing up in the new markets – in Africa and Asia.”

The minister said his government would take measures to facilitate travel and tourism, such as introducing e-visas, or even leap-frogging straight to m-visas, visas on mobile phones.

“It is possible to significantly boost tourism volumes and our sector’s job creation potential,” he noted.

Already, there are far over 600 million e-passports, micro- chipped passports with your biographic and biometric data, issued by governments worldwide.

“By next year, we expect 55 percent of all passports to be e- passports, and by 2020, this will likely be over 80 percent. Surely, this is a moment to be seized,” van Schalkwyk said.

For air connectivity, he said a simulation of 24 hours of air traffic demonstrates the challenges to ensure that South-South travel reflects the new economic and political realities in this world.

“Zooming in on Africa, we clearly also need more extensive hub- and-spoke airlift configurations that connect peripheral areas of our continent to the mainstream air routes,” said the minister.

A crafty cat has been caught smuggling cannabis into a Moldovan prison – via bags tied to his collar.

The grey and white feline aroused suspicion after it was spotted regularly nipping through a hole in the jail fence, the BBC reported.

Video of his collar being searched was posted on YouTube by Moldova’s justice ministry.

The cat was found to be carrying to bags of cannabis attached to its collar

According to The Associated Press, the Department of Penitentiary Institutions said on Friday that “someone in the village of Pruncul was using the cat as a courier to supply inmates with dope at the local prison.”

It’s not the first time a cat has been caught out smuggling contraband into a prison.

In January one enterprising feline was spotted attempting to smuggle a mobile phone, selection of saw and drill bits into a Brazilian prison.

And in March, another four-legged-fiend was intercepted as it sneaked mobile phones and chargers into a Russian jail.

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• Potato Duck

  Dorothea Clinton who dug up a potato in the shape of a duck. Dorothea Clinton will be having ‘Quack-et Potato’ for dinner after digging up this funny-looking potato Sep 13, 2013. The 73-year-old, of Peaton, near Ludlow, thought it bore an uncanny resemblance to a duck, and wanted to show of the funny looking vegetable.

• Heart Potato

  Sally Colburn holds a heart-shaped potato that she found. (Wendy Victora / a href=”http://www.nwfdailynews.com/local/woman-receives-message-from-the-beyond-from-husband-1.184125?page=1″ target=”_blank”Northwest Florida Daily News/a)

• German Cops Seize ‘Strangest-Looking Convertible’ Pool Car

  On July 22, 2013, German police spotted “a convertible of a slightly different kind.”

  “I saw the strangest-looking convertible I have ever seen – a roofless BMW, without registration plates, bordered around the open top with wooden boards and fake plastic flowers. It was also full of water,” a href=”http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Drunk_inventors_caught_cruising_in_car_pool?WT.mc_id=ON_MEC_A_AffWin_SkimbitWT.tsrc=AffiliateWT.mc_id=ON_MEC_A_AffWin_SkimbitWT.tsrc=Affiliate” target=”_hplink”the unnamed police officer told Orange News/a.

  The officer observed four young men, clad in bathing suits, splashing around inside the bizarre home-made car pool. According to the police report, “All of them appeared drunk.”

  The car had been sealed with a synthetic material and filled with approximately 530 gallons of water.

  One of the men, a 27-year-old who police suspect was driving, returned to the scene to collect his wallet, police obtained a sample of his blood for a blood-alcohol analysis.

  The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed yet.

  Speaking with a href=”http://www.bild.de/bild-plus/news/inland/verkehrsstraftat/polizei-stoppt-rasendes-planschbecken-31511980,view=conversionToLogin.bild.html” target=”_hplink”The Bild newspaper/a, one of the men called the ride a “stupid idea.”

  “It was the first time we drove on a street and we just wanted to have a little fun,” he said.

• Penis Strawberry

  A mother has revealed that she celebrated Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory with a freshly picked strawberry – shaped like a PENIS. Carole Collen, 52, was pottering about in her garden in Dartford, Kent, this Sunday (7/7) when she spotted the cheekily shaped berry dangling amid her fruit and veg patch. Holding back the laughter she went inside to show her family before taking a quick snap to show her friends. Now the mother-of-two is planning to entering the strawberry into a raffle in a bid to raise money for charity.

• This photo released by the Glendale Police Department shows a black Cadillac that lost control and careened onto the roof of a neighbor’s home on Saturday, March 23, 2013 in Glendale, Calif. The Cadillac driver lost control before leaving his driveway, plunging off a hill “onto the roof of his neighbor’s house directly below his driveway. (Photo courtesy of Glendale Police Department)

• Third Eye Blind

  Tilde Nörgaard, a Swedish sixth grader, is still trying to figure out how she got a third eye in her class photo.

• 150-lb Boulder Crashes Through Car Windshield

  This 150-lb boulder crashed through the windshield of a rental car in Sedona, Az. The passengers, Bob Jaczko and Peter Wilson suffered minor cuts.

• Kid Has LEGO stuck in nose for three years.

  Isaak Lasson can finally breathe easy after three years of sinus problem caused by a single wheel-shaped LEGO that he got stuck up his nose back when he was three.

• Scrapyard Destroys Wrong Car

  Ben Forrer outside Sita UK, a scrap yard in Coventry, today, 25, 2012. Refer to NTI story NTICRUSH. Ben Forrer looked on in horror as a Coventry scrapyard crushed his van by mistake. Ben Forrer had only left his Citroen Relay for a few minutes as he dropped off an old cooker at the Sita yard, in Longford. But workers mistook the van for scrap and began crushing it in the jaws of a mechanical grabber

• Middle Finger Bush

  A bush carved into the shape of a middle-finger has landed a gardener into trouble after somebody failed to share his humour over the shrub. The council received a complaint about the shaped bush eight years after it was carved by Richard Jackson, 53, in his front garden. Despite only receiving one complaint, the council have since contacted Richard to alter the bush as it is considered a public offence. But Richard, from Tamworth, Staffs, said his neighbours are backing his pledge to keep the bush and they have even began a Save the Bush campaign to support him. Credit: Caters News

• Cathedral Licker

  A man has made a 5,000 mile pilgrimage to every Anglican cathedral in England so he can give them a good LICKING. Lawrence Edmonds has staked his claim as Britains first every cathedral licker by tongue tickling an incredible 42 in less than two years. Christian approval, Polish condemnation, and looks of confusion from a flock of Dutch tourists have all been experienced by Lawrence on his epic journey Back in January 2011, Lawrences friend Adam challenged him to a bet- that he couldnt lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK within five years. Credit: Caters News

• Baobab Tree Sculpture

  Mike De Butts adds the finishing touches to a giant Baobab Tree sculpture entitled ‘Under the Baobab’, outside the Southbank Centre on May 24, 2012 in London, England. The Pirate Technics’ installation is made from a selection of brightly coloured fabrics from around the world, and is part of the Southbank Centre’s ‘Festival of the World’ exhibition, which includes a series of large scale pieces of art that will be in place around the Southbank centre over the Summer.

• My Little Ponies

  Some of Sarah’s ponies. Sarah Butler, 28 from Barnsley, Yorkshire has been collecting 1980’s My Little Ponies for 24 years and now has over 1,000 of them as well as having a themed room in her house including My Little Pony curtains, bedspread and other collectables.

• Rapunzel Hair

  Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, is nicknamed Rapunzel because her hair is more than 5 feet long — just one and a half inches shorter than her height. In March, she planned to cut and sell the locks for some $2,600 to help get her family in Rio De Janeiro out of poverty.

• Moscow City Lights

  Swirling colors of city lights from a 900ft crane fill the Moscow skyline. Photographer D. Chistoprudov boards the crane, which is being used to build a skyscraper called Federation, and takes pictures over a period of two hours. Chistoprudov, 28, starts taking the swirling snaps around 1am and battles freezing weather to remain completely still so not to ruin the careful process. (Caters News / ZUMA Press)

• iPoo

  The sleek design, the impressive functionality, the distinctive logo – was it only a matter of time before Apple redesigned the humble toilet with the iPoo? The iPoo is literally a case of toilet humour and Belgrade designer Milos Paripovic makes the tongue-in-cheek claim his work isn’t intentionally related to the Apple brand.

• Tamaseseri Festival

  Naked men wearing only loincloths vie for a wooden treasure ball weighing eight kilos to bring good fortune, during the Tamaseseri festival at Hakozaki shrine in Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu on Jan. 3, 2012. Two teams of farmers and fishermen competed for the rich harvest or largest catch at a festival that dates back some 500 years.

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Heine Braeck, 33, from Sarpsborg, Norway, has been without an right arm since he lost it during a freak accident when he was 13. Now he has decided to make the stump look like a dolpin’s head with the help of Bulgarian tattooist Valio Ska.

• Giant Slipper

  A man who ordered a special slipper to fit his oversized foot was sent a size 1,450 – after manufacturers failed to spot a decimal point in his order. Tom Boddingham, 27, has a size 13 right foot while his left is slightly bigger and measures a size 14-and-a-half. But when he ordered his custom-fit slipper manufacturers in China misread size 14.5 and accidently made a whopping 7ft long size 1,450

• Eight-year-old girl is world’s youngest drag racer

  Eight-year-old girl Belle Wheeler has become the youngest drag racer in the world — just two days after her eighth birthday. The pint-sized dragster then went onto compete against youngsters more than twice her age and qualified for the UK National Finals.

• Lawn Mower Endurance Race

  Competitors race in the 12-hour Lawn Mower Endurance Race on September 24, 2011 in Billingshurst, England. First started in 1973 as a motorsport that would be accessible to as many as possible, this year’s competition included more than 30 teams including some from South Africa, America and Luxembourg.

• Pumpkin Art

  An employee arranges pumpkins to form a fish at the pumkin exhibition of the asparagus and experience farm Buschmann and Winkelmann in Klaistow near Beelitz, northeastern Germany on August 31, 2011. The exhibition will start on September 1 , 2011, with over 100,000 pumkins in 400 different varieties.

• Cable Car High Wire

  High wire artist Freddy Nock balances as he walks up on the rope of a Zugspitze cable car in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Nock walked up the 995 meters long rope with an altitude difference of 348 meters aiming at collecting money for the UNESCO. He is attempting to set a new world record by doing seven summits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in seven days. It took him about 90 minutes to arrive on top of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.

• Third Story Exit

  A 16-ton salt spreader blasted through the fifth-floor wall of a Queens Sanitation Department garage and came within inches of plummeting 50 feet to the street. The driver survived the spectacular 9:30 am crash, which sent bricks and debris raining down on cars parked outside the Maspeth repair facility, but spent 15 terrified minutes dangling in the cab of the bright orange vehicle. It’s unclear how driver Robert Legall, a 10-year Sanitation veteran with a clean record, lost control of the big rig. “There are signs up there warning drivers to slow down,” Commissioner John Doherty told the New York Post. “He’s familiar with the rules. We think it was just an unfortunate accident.”

• Speed Record Spins Out

  Driver Joe Wales crashes through the surf after veering off course during an attempt on the British land speed record for battery-powered vehicles in the Bluebird Electric on Pendine Sands on August 14, 2011 in Pendine, Wales. Driver Joe Wales and his father, fellow driver Don Wales, come from a famous family who have been setting land and water speed records since 1924. Don holds the current UK record of 137 miles an hour in an electric vehicle.

• Giant Cabbage

  Harrogate Autumn Flower show Director Martin Fish with a giant cabbage, as he introduced a series of new classes for Giant Vegetables to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Show. Giant onions, tomatoes and many others will all compete for the top prize of the biggest vegetable.

• Keep Claer

  An incorrectly spelled “Keep Clear” road marking is pictured in Kingswinford, on August 3, 2011 in West Midlands, England.

• Etna Volcano lava

  Lava spewed from a crater of the giant Etna volcano in the southern Italy island of Sicily on July 30, 2011 in Catania. The lava flown into a valley overnight and did not represent a danger to inhabited areas. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet) which last eruption was in May.

• Killer Plant Eats Bird

  An exotic plant expert was stunned when he inspected one of his garden
  pitcher plants and discovered it had eaten a blue tit.
  Prize winning Nigel Hewitt Cooper one of Britain’s leading carnivorous plant
  growers, from West Pennard, Somerset, couldn’t believe his eyes when he
  checked the Nepenthes x mixta or Monkey Cup pitcher and found the dead bird
  inside.
  Normally the plants which are native to south east Asia consume insects
  which thy attract by secreting a sticky, sweet fluid at the bottom of the
  pitcher.
  Sometimes in the wild they have been known to kill small mammals like mice
  but Mr Hewitt Cooper who regularly wins prizes at the Chelsea flower show
  says for a cultivate plant to capture a bird is incredible.

• Giant Mermaid

  A man adjusts a sculpture “Giant Mermaid” on the Alster lake in the northern German city of Hamburg on August 1, 2011. The sculpture is created by art and advertising agency headed by Oliver Voss.

• Huge Pastry

  People look at a huge khachapuri (Georgian cheese pastry) in central Batumi on July 28, 2011. The cake was baked using 100 eggs, 90 kilograms of cheese, 150 kilograms of flour, has 8 meters length and was eaten within 1minute 32 seconds by people at a street.

• Velomobiles

  Velomobiles, recumbent bicycles with sleek, colorful outer shells, head for the open road in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 28, 2011. Twenty five riders from Europe and twenty five riders from North America are on a cross-country trip which will finish on the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington D.C. on August 26. The bikers are trying to spread the message that sustainable, clean transportation can be fun.

• Bobblehead Bishop

  Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman has been immortalized in miniature with a bobblehead doll made in his likeness. The bobblehead comes as Trautman prepares to end his tenure as bishop of Erie.

• Canadian bubble artist

  Canadian bubble artist Yang Fan, who has set world record by packing 118 people inside a soap bubble, performs at the Gazillion bubble show in Beijing on July 19, 2011. Yang has earned international acclaim as a result of his complex displays of “bubble theater”. In addition to performing he has developed his own bubble solution formulas and equipment to create bubbles.

• Giant Marilyn

  Newly-wed bride Magda Villasenor looks at “Forever Marilyn”, a sculpture by Seward Johnson, on July 15, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The stainless steel and aluminum sculpture, which stands 26 feet tall and weighs 34,000 pounds, will be on display in Chicago through the spring of 2012. The sculpture was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene in the 1955 movie “Seven Year Itch”.

• Hot Dog Hot Rod

  The iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile vehicle is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange as part of its day-long 75th birthday celebration, Monday, July 18, 2011. To commemorate the milestone, the Oscar Mayer brand rang the closing bell at NYSE. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Oscar Mayer)

• Harry Potter Corn Maze

  An aerial view of Top Pearsy’s Maize Maze in the shape of Harry Potter, on July 11, 2011 in York, England. Farmer Tom Pearcy has cut two portraits of Harry Potter in his crop of maize plants. With some subtle differences the two images create the world’s largest spot the difference competition. At over 50m in diameter, and cut out of over 1 million living maize plants, the York Maze is the largest ‘Maize Maze’ in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

• Recycled Sailboat

  A sail boat made of recycled material makes its maiden voyage to mark World Oceans Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

• Pontiac Deluxe Six ‘Ghost Car’

  An extraordinary transparent car could fetch as much as GBP 295,000 when it goes up for auction.The motor, dubbed the ‘Ghost Car’, is a Pontiac Deluxe Six which has been covered in Plexiglas. The first transparent full-sized car to be made in America, it was built in 1939 by General Motors and chemical company Rohm and Haas. Billed as a vision of the future, it was a sensation at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair and continues to cause a stir today. Just two were ever made and this model, which has a three-speed manual transmission, is thought to be the last of its kind. It has clocked up just 86 miles in its lifetime; and now its set to go on sale for the first time since the early 1980s. It last sold for an undisclosed amount. American auctioneers RM expect it to sell for between $275,000 and $475,000.

• Serbian Brides Race

  Serbian women take part in a wedding dress race in downtown Belgrade on June 19, 2011. More than fifty “brides” took part in an annual wedding dress race in the Serbian capital, competing for numerous prizes. (Andrej Isakovic, AFP/Getty Images)

• World Naked Bike Ride

  People take part in the annual “London World Naked Bike Ride” event in central London on June 11, 2011. Now in it’s eighth year, the event has seen participation grow from 58 in 2004 to 1,200 in 2009. Taking a route that passes many of London’s most famous landmarks, the ride allows those participating to decorate their body with messages of protest against oil dependancy and motor vehicle usage.

• Hanging Around

  British artist Alice Newstead hangs by shark hooks during her demonstration to protest against shark slaughter in Hong Kong on June 14. The protest was organized by marine conservation group Shark Savers, and supported by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics who are launching a global campaign to protect the sharks.

• Reptile House

  Diska Putra, holds one of his snakes in bed at home on June 10, 2011 in Bintan, Indonesia. Putra, 24, cohabitates in Indonesian with a collection of 30 snakes, some of which are deadly poisonous.

• Monkey God

  An Indian priest walks outside the temple of Hindu monkey God Hanuman in New Delhi early June 12, 2011. The highly popular monkey-god Hanuman known for his strength is worshipped for his unyielding devotion and selfless dedication to the Lord Rama.

• Big Baby

  Ron Mueck’s ‘Big Baby’ sculpture is displayed in front of Jenny Saville’s painting ‘Interfacing’ at the Masterpieces Exhibition at Christie’s on June 13, 2011 in London, England.

• Drunken Knight

  A would-be knight who tried to woo a maiden by riding into her home on a horse is facing five years behind bars for aggravated burglary. Lovelorn Jan Rudnicki, 40, hatched the scheme to bowl over divorcee Gosia Domoslawska after a night’s drinking down his local bar in Jarnoltowka, Poland. But terrified Gosia, 36, dialed 999 when her drunken suitor – stripped to the waist – galloped up her garden path and smashed his way through the front door like a battering ram.

• Sideshow Fat Man Dies

  Bruce Snowdon, the last sideshow fat man, was honored in a memorial service on Jan. 30, 2010. Snowdon performed as “Harold Huge,” and weighed 607 pounds (though by some billing he tipped the scale at 712 pounds). Here he is with fellow sideshow star Peter Terhurne, a fire-eating dwarf.

• So, What Do You Do For a Living?

  Mexican tattoo artist and trained lawyer Maria Jose Cristerna, known as “Vampire Woman”, attends the Fifth International Tattoo Convention in Bogota, Colombia, on June 4, 2011.

• It’s All Fun And Games…

  A Sufi Kalandar (wandering ascetic) performs an act of self torture during devotion at the annual death anniversary of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India on June 2.

When is a gig not simply a gig? When it’s also a dance, of course. And that’s exactly what you get when the influential Blowzabella set out on the road to celebrate 35 years of music making.

A seven-piece of exceptional individual talent, collectively they make an inimitable, driving, drone-based sound with a fabulous sense of melody, rhythmic expertise and heaps of passion. They have toured globally from Glastonbury to West Africa, South America and the Far East. Some of their compositions have become standards in the modern folk repertoire and many experimental bands cite Blowzabella as a major influence. Their new album Strange News, released yesterday, showcases their talent for writing great tunes influenced by English and European traditional dance music, while putting their inimitable slant on four traditional English folk songs. The current line-up features Andy Cutting on diatonic button accordion, Jo Freya on clarinet and saxophones, Paul James on bagpipes, saxophones, Gregory Jolivet on hurdy-gurdy, Dave Shepherd on violin, Barn Stradling on bass guitar and Jon Swayne on bagpipes and saxophones.

1. ?

   Blowzabella come to Exeter next week

Blowzabella play at Exeter Corn Exchange on October 18.

We are offering 10% off BullDog Leaf Rakes for a limited time only.

Terms:
Only one voucher per transaction, No Photocopies. Offer ends 31st December 2013

Contact: 0117 2440426

Valid until: Tuesday, December 31 2013

16th October 2013

The French club from Camembert was founded recently and one of the Dorchester Club members who lives both in France and Dorchester now belongs to the new club, and is also the President elect. 

The French Club were represented by Sylviane Helie, Chair of Protocol (also the Mayor of Commeaux), Michel Lefevre – Treasurer – and Ute Abergast the International Chair. The other Camembert member and president elect was Ron Wrigley, recently of the Dorchester Club. 

Members and guests were entertained by two speakers, namely Major Jean Bradbury of the Salvation Army whose son and daughter in law are both active in the Salvation Army in Nairobi.

After a meal members heard from Chris Connors, the founder of Coco’s Foundation, which has rebuilt school premises and houses in Africa with the help of apprentices in his firm.  

As the result of a previous event, the club presented Rene Cokott of the Dorchester Disabled Club a cheque to assist with their work. 

PICTURE: From the left, Michel Lefevre, Ian Dominy, Sylviane Helie, Ute Abergast and Stella Jones and standing behind, Ron Wrigley. 

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Contemporary art
Fairs


United Kingdom

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17th October 2013

Three competitors representing Bridport Runners entered the 26.2 mile marathon on October 6th.
Vicky Ackerman, Kazy Vincent-Janes and Ben Renshaw – who all belong to the local running club Bridport Runners – were joined by friend Tim Hussey around the 26.2 mile long course.
Mr Renshaw posted the 22nd fastest time out of more than 3,000 participants, completing the course in two hours and 53 minutes.
It was the first ever marathon for Ms Ackerman, who posted a time of four hours 43 minutes.
Ms Vincent-James and Mr Hussey used the race to raise money for their chosen charities – African Orphanage and the Dorset Somerset Air Ambulance.
In April the running group had been represented at the London Marathon by Susan Tweed.
For anyone whose first steps to taking part in a marathon might be to get fit for a 5K run, Bridport Runners are offering a beginners club from Wednesday, October 16th at 6 pm, at Bridport Leisure Centre.
Anyone interested should come to the first training session, contact the club’s chairman Brian Shelley on 01308 459942 or email jane_brianshelley@ yahoo.co.uk

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• By Nguyen Pham Muoi

HANOI – If you happen to be in Hanoi for a couple of days and are craving some delicious, high-quality Vietnamese dishes, you may want to check out the Le Club piano bar at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel.

Sofitel Metropole Hotel
The half-cooked salmon, served warm and paired with a glass of red wine, makes for the perfect night at Sofitel’s historic Metropole Hotel in Hanoi.

Built in French-colonial style in the Old Quarter of the city, the historic luxury hotel opened more than a century ago, in August 1901. The Metropole is not only the first of the six Sofitel Legends worldwide – the others are in the Netherlands, Colombia, Morocco and Egypt, where there are two – but it has also been witness to much of Hanoi’s tumultuous history.

When the Metropole was first built, Hanoi was the capital of French-ruled Tonkin. Five decades later it saw the fall of colonialism as Vietnam fought towards independence in the 1950s. Later, the hotel rose to prominence as a base for journalists and diplomats to meet during and after the Vietnam War, known here as the American War.

Legend has it that the Metropole was the first venue in Indochina to show “moving pictures,” and is the place where many famous figures – including former U.S. President George W. Bush, Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt – have stayed. The hotel also has three legendary suites dedicated to writers Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham, and iconic actor Charlie Chaplin.

Some of the dishes at the hotel’s various restaurants are named after these figures, and staff says some travelers have made it a must to try anything named after Charlie Chaplin. (Offerings include both a cocktail and tasty Sunday).

Though the hotel has gone through various changes over the past century, the hotel retains its rich heritage while elegantly blending in some modern elements.

Metropole
The Metropole offers a memorable night for those who love the piano.

Tucked away next to a garden in the east wing of the hotel, Le Club Bar is like an oasis far from the cacophony of Hanoi’s street traffic – something you might be truly grateful for after a day of walking under the heat, through narrow, hectic streets blaring with the sounds of motorbikes. The bar is a place for quiet souls and jazz enthusiasts who are willing to splurge for a classy night on the town.

Le Club, claimed to be “Hanoi’s classiest house of jazz,” is open throughout the day, but its music performances only kick off after 9pm every Tuesday through Sunday.

If you’re visiting Hanoi any time from now until Dec. 10, you can seeing American Jazz vocalist Laura Brunner sing and sway to a mix of jazzy melodies, accompanied by the sounds of an eclectic piano and cello.  The hotel invites performers for three-month gigs, but some ended up liking both Hanoi and the colonial luxury hotel so much they keep coming back. Jazz diva Diane Witherspoon, who has left quite an imprint among local jazz lovers, first performed at the Metropole in January and returned again in May this year.

When you enter the bar ease in to the atmosphere by letting the music billow around you. Then find a seat at any table in the room and treat yourself to a glass of Mouton Cadet (Bordeaux 2010).

The wine pairs well with a dish of half-baked warm salmon. Placed squarely on a white China plate and served with a crisp, fresh garnish, the tender pink fish is perfectly and simply seasoned.

The bar has a striking wine menu that includes French Bordeaux and Burgundies. Wines also hail from Italy, South Africa, the Western U.S., Argentina, Chile and Australia. In recent years wealthy Vietnamese have grown to enjoy wines from prestigious French brewers, while younger drinkers prefer Italian and Chilean wines. Notably, however, there are no wine offerings from Vietnam.

Le Club sits adjacent to the Metropole’s three other restaurants, so you can sit at the bar and still order food from the French Le Beaulieu, Italian Angelina, or Vietnamese Spices Garden. And every first Wednesday of the month, the Italian restaurant hosts a fashion show sponsored by world-class fashion houses.

If you’re a fan of chocolate, then you should definitely come to Le Club earlier in the afternoon, anytime between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to savor the hotel’s famous Chocolate Buffet.

The buffet offers more than two dozen kinds of chocolate and including a chocolate fountain, chocolate cakes and mousses, and six different kinds of hot cocoa. There is also ice cream in various flavors, plates piled high with fruit and tea or coffee to accompany your chocolate-tasting adventure.

SIR – I can’t see why anyone would want to invest in electricity generation in
Britain. It is becoming impossible for energy companies to plan ahead, as
politicians try to compete for votes with various policies. At the same
time, massive investment is required by these companies to prevent a
shortage in capacity in the near future.

Ultimately it is the taxpayer who will pick up the tab for politicians’ vanity
projects. The cost of all the green subsidies should be reflected in direct
taxation, not in energy bills, thus protecting the people least able to
afford the rises in energy bills.

Deregulation was meant to give consumers more choice and cheaper energy. Since
the end of the Nineties we have in fact managed to reward and subsidise the
most expensive, least flexible sources of energy while shrinking the number
of participants to the big six. Some of this was on Ed Miliband’s watch as
energy minister, so hearing him talk about capping prices fills me with
despair.

Mark Davies
Upper Gatton, Surrey

SIR – The flood of information and disinformation about the reasons for high
energy prices has failed to mention the 5 per cent VAT on all energy bills,
which was introduced in 1993.

As with all percentage taxes, it increases at the same rate as the price to
which it applies, so the tax take from it must be rising very fast. The
Conservative Party could promise to reduce or abolish VAT on energy after
the next election. I doubt that the Lib Dems would agree to do so earlier.

Martin Sage
Westhay, Somerset

SIR – Is it time to turn up the heat on government to embrace nuclear power?

Charlie Messervy-Whiting
Worcester

SIR – The
£112 charge on average electricity bills for environmental
costs is only part of the story.

A large proportion of the £288 charge for delivery arises from the need to
make extensive modifications and extensions to the transmission network in
order to cope with new wind farms.

Spencer Atwell
Felbridge, Surrey

SIR – The
8.2 per cent increase in fuel by SSE is small compared with Npower’s
demand for an increase in my monthly direct debit from £158 to £208, a rise
of 31.64 per cent for the same four-bedroom detached house I’ve lived in for
34 years.

Geoffrey Hodgson
Shadwell, West Yorkshire

SIR – Energy is not expensive in Britain. Most households pay more for their
television and broadband subscriptions than their electricity, and vehicle
fuel is cheaper than bottled water and beer. We simply don’t value it.
Supposedly “high” household bills are a reflection of wasteful use, not high
unit costs. Put a jumper on and turn some lights off.

Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire

The minimum age

SIR – The
Transport Research Authority says that 17-year-olds are too immature
to be allowed to take a UK driving test and that drivers ought to be at
least 18 years of age and have restrictions imposed for their first year
after passing the test (report, October 11).

At the same time, the Scottish Government says that all persons over the age
of 16, regardless of academic or any other ability, are sufficiently mature
to determine the political future of Scotland.

They can’t both be right.

John Jukes
Bosherston, Pembrokeshire

SIR – Seventeen-year-olds are too young to write a credible diary, to hold a
full driving licence and to deploy to a theatre of military operations.

Why is the Labour Party pushing to lower the voting age to 16?

Michael Nicholson
Dunsfold, Surrey

A free press

SIR – I am deeply disappointed to learn that the new proposals by the
newspaper industry for self-regulation have been rejected by the Government.

The free press in this country has been the envy of the world and, while it
does make some mistakes, existing law, properly used, is sufficient for
appropriate redress.

Under the new regulations the principle of free speech is yet again
undermined. What opportunity would The Daily Telegraph have been afforded to
reveal the MPs’ expenses scandal had these new rules been in place at the
time?

Apparently, our inept and inexperienced politicians have yet again bowed to
wrong-headed lobbying from pressure groups.

Ian Briggs
Stanton-under-Bardon, Leicestershire

Coffin up

SIR – With
funeral directors charging £4,000 for coffins, I’m
pleased to read that it is now possible to procure one for £865, or even a
cardboard one for £15.

I asked my local carpenter if he would make a coffin out of recycled timber.
He said that he would be pleased to find alternative use for his old stock,
which is occupying valuable space, and would supply a bespoke pine coffin
for £300.

He is making it now.

Charles Holcombe
Brighton, East Sussex

The Abortion Act

SIR – Surely any civilised human being must agree
with Lord Steel that abortion on the grounds of the sex of the
foetus is repugnant.

His 1967 Abortion Act framed what were, at the time, very reasonable
conditions under which abortion could be carried out. As a retired member of
the medical profession, I am ashamed at the way it has yielded to pressure
for abortion to be available on demand for virtually any reason.

However, the legal profession and Parliament are equally at fault. Lord Steel
suggests the burden of any change should be on the General Medical Council,
but surely what is required is a firm acceptance of the original framework
of the 1967 Act, if necessary confirmed by new legislation.

Nigel Dwyer FRCS
Solihull, West Midlands

First-time buyers

SIR – Paul
Harrison continues to perpetuate the myth that house buyers 40 years
ago had to overcome many hurdles.

I bought my first home in 1969, a Fifties semi-detached house in south
Manchester, for £4,000. I had no financial track record in Britain, having
lived in southern Africa since 1966, but had been offered a job with a basic
£2,100 salary. A 98.75 per cent mortgage for £3,950 was arranged in seven
days. Although the mortgage rate was 8 per cent, tax relief on interest
(Miras) eased the pain and a monthly repayment of £33 was quite manageable.

I passed this house five years ago and it was on sale at £169,500, I guess
well out of reach of first time buyers.

We had it much easier than today.

Ian R White
Langho, Lancashire

Hungover hockey

SIR – For those who do not have access to an
Austin Healey to cure a hangover, a large swig of Barr’s Irn Bru,
followed by a game of hockey, ideally mid-winter on the west coast of
Scotland, works equally well.

Ginny Hudson
Swanmore, Hampshire

SIR – Two rashers of bacon, two fried eggs and a grilled tomato, lashings of
toast and marmalade, and a pot of strong Yorkshire Gold tea never fails.

Fred For
Salford, Lancashire

Partridge should be fair game for student dining

SIR – Should we not be applauding the
Oxford Brookes students for demonstrating admirable initiative in
producing a delicious meal for 12 using sustainable, seasonal produce on a
student budget and not a takeaway pizza in sight? They even cleared up the
waste!

Polly Paterson
Windlesham, Surrey

SIR – Partridge, shot on the wing, hung, plucked, and cooked is about as green
as it gets.

Had the students had the wisdom to paunch the classless rabbit rather than
pluck red-legged partridge, maybe they would have been recognised for their
austerity rather than condemned for their aristocracy.

Philip Usherwood
Fleet, Hampshire

Ned Halley considers some treats for the shortening days.

This is the season for contemplative white wines. Pale, crisp and tangy refreshers are just the ticket for summer days, but autumn calls for richer colours, ripe aromas and long, mellow fruitfulness.

1. ?

   The burnished autumnal colours of a vineyard in the Rioja region of northeast Spain

Poetic, huh? But I hope you get the drift. There is such infinite variety in this golden age of wine that we can easily tailor our tastes to the climatic conditions, and it’s fun to do so.

White wines with the flavours of autumn are those in which the fruit feels plump and wholesomely ripe. In terms of grape varieties we’re talking peachy-lush chardonnay rather than gooseberry-grassy sauvignon blanc, orchard-ripe fiano instead of piquant pinot grigio.

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Start at the natural home of mellow white wines, Burgundy, where the indigenous chardonnay makes famous and famously expensive oak-matured classics with portentous names such as Meursault and Montrachet. Fortunately, the region produces plenty of affordable generic chardonnays besides, particularly in the outlying southern zone of the Mâconnais.

Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Chenaudières 2012 (Majestic, £8.99 or £7.99 if you buy two) is the ideal introduction. It’s a simple Mâconnais from the redoubtable Cave de Lugny with an appositely macaroon savour alongside the plump, ripe apple-pie fruit and lemon soufflé lift. Sheer joy at a very sensible price.

Catena Chardonnay 2012 (Waitrose, £12.99) from Argentina represents a distinctly New World variation on the Burgundian theme. It’s gloriously extravagant with a lemon-gold colour and a butterscotch richness to the sweet-apple fruit, and yet it contrives also to be briskly dry with a distinct citrus edge.

From across the Andes in Chile’s Casablanca region, Errazuriz Max Reserva Chardonnay 2011 (Tesco online, £12.50) is lavishly rich with toffee-apple intensity, yet nicely balanced between melon-ripe peach lushness and a grapefruit-tangy freshness. This is a direct style-challenge to the likes of Burgundy’s Meursault – and it carries it off.

The chardonnay is the emblematic white grape of Australia but not, I believe, the source of its most interesting white wines. For true autumn flavours look to the semillon, a variety native to southwest France where it is blended with sauvignon blanc to make the elegant dry whites of Bordeaux and, when harvested very late in the season in a state of “noble rot”, the sweet wines of Sauternes.

Australian growers have proved very adept at making lavish dry whites with pure Semillon, a wine style to seek out in this season of the year. Try McGuigan Classic Semillon Blanc 2012 (Sainsbury’s, £7.99) for size. Exotic banana-pineapple aromas lead into long, lush, fresh and poised fruit flavours.

I also commend Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Hunter Valley Semillon 2006 at £9.99. This is a mature wine with what you might recognise as a “petrolly” aroma; it is fino-sherry-like in its weighted density and loaded with tropical fruits trimmed up into a dry finish.

Firmly back in our own back yard, Lugana 2012 (Asda, £8.50, currently down to £7) is an enticingly sun-ripened dry white from the shores of Lake Garda in northeast Italy. It’s from the universal Italian grape the trebbiano, and here it makes a herbaceous, peachy and satisfying wine, quite rich but uplifted by a twangy lemon finish.

From the other end of Italy altogether, Mandarossa Fiano 2011 (Morrisons online, £9.99) is a highly coloured Sicilian dry wine, assertive in its crunchy-apple freshness but plump, long in flavour and satisfying, too. Good creamy pasta matcher.

Travelling further south, South Africa is making a nifty speciality of autumn-flavoured dry whites, in particular from the chenin blanc grape, a native of France’s Loire Valley. This variety is not as well-known either in the Loire or the Cape as it deserves to be, overshadowed in both regions by the ubiquitous sauvignon. I have a couple of firm recommendations.

Asda Extra Special South African Chenin Blanc 2012 at £7 is a lovely expression of this enigmatic grape, naturally rich and with a fleeting honey note and yet finely balanced, crisp and vivacious. It’s a generous wine with 14% alcohol.

And Villiera Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc 2012 at £11.49 from Marks Spencer is a special occasion wine from Stellenbosch, due east of Cape Town. It would sit very comfortably with lobster.

England have asked Cricket Australia to ensure the Ashes tourists face adequate opposition in their tour matches, with players set to be drafted in from around the country to bolster a Western Australia state XI for the tour opener in Perth.

Each of the three matches scheduled for England ahead of the first Test in Brisbane will clash with a Sheffield Shield round, and the first will take place while Australia’s ODI team are still on duty in India. These circumstances will likely leave the WA squad for the three-day match at the WACA ground particularly weak.

ESPNcricinfo understands that early discussions have taken place around the shape of that team, and players not chosen for Shield duty in some of the stronger states may be required to fly across the continent and don the Western Australia cap for a week.

Some of the players likely to find themselves around the fringes of state sides making room for numerous international participants include Peter Handscomb and Scott Boland for Victoria, Scott Henry and Kurtis Patterson for New South Wales and Luke Feldman in Queensland.

There is less ECB concern about the subsequent four-day encounter against a New South Wales side at the SCG given the state’s deeper pool of talent, while the Australia A team to face the Englishmen over four days in Hobart between the two state matches is expected to be stronger on batting than bowling, as was the case when they faced the South Africans in Sydney last year.

Western Australia’s struggles to cobble together a strong enough team highlight the lack of depth in the state, a decline over numerous years contrasting with talent stocks in the 1990s that were so strong as to push the likes of David Hussey and Stuart MacGill to the eastern seaboard.

The coach Justin Langer has already enlisted the services of his former Test team-mate Simon Katich as a senior pro in the domestic limited-overs competition, and may be attempting to convince the 38-year-old to take part in more Warriors fixtures either in the Shield or against the Englishmen.

England have themselves switched players from county to county for tour matches in the past, Nick Compton playing for Worcestershire as well as Somerset in the early weeks of the Ashes tour this year as the home selectors pondered his place on the fringes of the Test team.