MAGPIE:A JAPANESE lingerie firm has unveiled the perfect gadget for eco-friendly sun worshippers - the solar-powered bra.
It comes with a detachable solar panel which can produce enough energy to power an iPod or mobile phone. It is also equipped with plastic pouches that can be filled with water, allowing wearers to quench their thirst without having to buy and then throw away drinks bottles.
The Photovoltaic-Powered Bra, as it is called, is made of high-quality organic cotton, to ensure its production has the smallest possible impact on the environment.
The bra is still at the concept stage and has several problems that need to be ironed out. For one, it is damaged by rain.
"People usually cannot go outside without wearing clothes over it," said Yoshiko Masuda of lingerie manufacturer Triumph International. The "Solar Energy Bra" follows the company's other green-themed undergarments that include a bra that turns into a reusable shopping bag and one that featured metal chopsticks to promote the use of reusable chopsticks.
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A NEW York woman who took her family to visit the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, Connecticut, has filed a $100 claim against the city, saying her child's shoes, along with the entire outing, were ruined when her one-year-old stepped in dog faeces. "The official response is her claim is denied and poop happens," said city attorney Jeffrey Spahr. "I had to read it twice. Immediately, what I did was say, 'You're not going to believe this one.' It was hilarious. What are these people thinking about? Just when you think you've heard it all."
The claimant, Kelly DeBrocky, doesn't agree. "I thought the whole thing was disgusting," she said, adding that she took the child's shoes off and tried to clean them. "We had to pay for admission to the aquarium and my son had no shoes and it made the entire experience awful. . . I didn't ask for anything crazy, I asked for reimbursement for a pair of shoes."
For Spahr, it's just another crazy claim. Others without merit he's had to deal with include a boater who blamed the city after his boat, docked at the city marina, filled up with water in a heavy rainstorm and sank.
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THE MUMMIFIED remains of a Croatian woman have been found sitting in her armchair at home in front of a black and white TV set 42 years after she was reported missing.
Police say Hedviga Golik, who was born in 1924, had apparently made herself a cup of tea and sat down to watch the television. They say that would have been in 1966 when she was last seen by neighbours. One day she seemed to have just disappeared and they thought she had moved out of her flat in the capital, Zagreb.
But police who broke in with bailiffs after local authorities said they wanted to check on its ownership found her remains in the small 13 square metre flat.
"We have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before in the same apartment she used to live in," said a police spokesman.
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AN AUSTRALIAN doctor cracked open a hen egg to make his dinner - and says he found a fully-formed gecko lizard inside.
"I was cracking the eggs into a pan when I noticed one of them was all cloudy. I looked at the shell and saw a tiny gecko," said Dr Peter Beaumont.
He insisted the lizard had not got into the shell after he'd cracked it open because the reptile was embedded between the inner shell and the egg's membrane.
He believes it may have crawled into the chicken to feast on an embryo - and got stuck. The egg then formed around the lizard.
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A POLISH farmer is facing jail after he drove his two-ton tractor down a set of stairs in a drunken bet. Tomasz Jankowski (45) tried to drive his tractor down the city centre steps in the middle of a town square in Tczew in northwest Poland after drinking with friends.
"After a few vodkas the staircase seemed a lot wider than it really was and nowhere near as steep," he said.