Officials in Gongan county in the rural province of Hubei were encouraged to smoke over 230,000 packs of locally produced cigarettes a year, the Hubei-based Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.
The newspaper reported that officials who smoked cigarettes from outside the area would be fined, prompting an outpouring of criticism.
The Gongan government subsequently stated on its website Tuesday it has reversed the edict, but did not say why.
The posting said the rule was introduced in March to crack down on cigarette smuggling and provide aid to local brands. It also suggested that greater revenues through the cigarette tax would swell government coffers.
China is the world’s largest producer of cigarettes. There are believed to be 320 million smokers in the country.
]]>The new variety is among six flavours introduced Friday by Walkers, a British chip maker.
As part of a promotion called "Do Us A Flavour," Britons were asked to create their own variety of potato chip. After receiving over a million submissions, a judging panel featuring celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal settled on Cajun Squirrel and these five other flavours:
The chips will be on sale across Britain until May. Discerning consumers have until then to vote for their favourite flavour, which will remain on sale permanently.
The creator of the winning flavour also stands to pocket $90,000 and will earn one per cent of the profits from all future sales.
]]>So it's not much of a surprise when a cell company — in this case, Motorola — reveals a new wrinkle in the green game.
It has launched a phone using plastics made out recycled water bottles. Moreover, the appropriately named Renew is also the world’s first carbon neutral phone, the company says.
It has cut a deal with Carbonfund.org so that the carbon dioxide produced to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone is offset by by investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation.
For Motorola, it's part of a recycling program that extends to a 22 per cent cut in the Renew's packaging size and the use of 100 per cent post-consumer recycled paper for the box and printed material. The company also includes a postage-paid recycling envelope so buyers can return their previous phone for recycling.
It's all good green, but what does it mean for business? According to a report from
MultiMedia Intelligence, Motorola is going to lose its spot as the No. 1 handset seller in the United States this year.
Rush, 49, is auctioning off the Mystic Caverns in the hills of Ozark Mountains on eBay. The 28-acre property in Arkansas includes a gift shop and three caves, two of which are safe enough for
visitors.
Calling Batman: cave owner Steve Rush has a deal for you
Rush, 49, is auctioning off the Mystic Caverns in the hills of Ozark Mountains on eBay. The 28-acre property in Arkansas includes a gift shop and three caves, two of which are safe enough for
visitors.
The bidding starts at $899,999 US, cut from Rush's original asking price of $1.2 million.
Rush bought the property near Harrison in 1988 and began giving tours in 1992 to the two accessible caves, Mystic cavern and the Crystal Dome cavern. A third cave on his 28-acre property, Not Much Sink cavern, remains too dangerous for tours.
But business has dropped since a nearby amusement park closed in the 1990s. Rush said the Mystic Caverns still get about 15,000 visitors each year.
Rush said he wants to sell the caves to become involved in Christian ministries. He also joked that he tiring of being a tour guide.
"It's always been a struggle for me, because you have to entertain people. ... I'm really tired of trying to entertain people," he said.
Rush acknowledged the tight real estate market but said he hoped to sell the caves to a cave-diving enthusiast with a little spending money.
"It's a tough time in the marketplace to get a buyer I think for any real estate, and I don't think this business makes enough money" to make mortgage payments, Rush said. "However, if you had
some money and you were not afraid of risk ...."
Vickie Martin, a real estate agent for the caves, agreed. "It's a tough sale. You've got to find the right person," she said. "It takes a lot of time and energy and run it. It's not something you
can buy and let it run itself. You've got to take an active interest in it."
Rush said he had been quietly shopping the caves around for two years but took the sale public when no takers came forward.
]]>London buses have God on their side — but not for long, if atheists have their way.
The sides of some of London's red buses will soon carry ads asserting there is "probably no God," as nonbelievers fight what they say is the preferential treatment given to religion in British society.
Organizers of a campaign to raise funds for the ads said Wednesday they received more than $113,000 US in donations, almost seven times their target, in the hours since they launched the project on a charity website. Supporters include Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who donated $9,000.
The money will be used to place posters on 30 buses carrying the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The plan was to run the ads for four weeks starting in January, but so much money has been raised that the project may be expanded.
"A lot of people say trying to organize atheists is like herding cats. The last couple of days shows that is not true," said comedy writer Ariane Sherine, who started the campaign.
While most London buses carry posters for shops or Hollywood movies, Christian churches and Muslim groups have bought bus-side ad space in the past.
Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell.
"I thought it would be a really positive thing to counter that by putting forward a much happier and more upbeat advert, saying 'Don't worry, you're not going to hell,'" said Sherine, 28. "Atheists believe this is the only life we have, and we should enjoy it."
The British Humanist Association, which is administering the fundraising drive, said it had been so successful the campaign might spread to other cities including Manchester and Edinburgh.
Most Britons identify themselves as Christians, but few attend church regularly, and public figures rarely talk about their beliefs. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was rare among politicians in speaking openly about his Christian faith.
Dawkins, author of the best-selling atheist manifesto The God Delusion, said that religion nonetheless held a privileged position in society.
"Religious organizations have an automatic tax-free charitable status," he said. "Bishops sit in the House of Lords automatically. Religious leaders get preferential treatment on all sorts of commissions.
"This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion."
Dawkins said that as an atheist he "wasn't wild" about the ad's assertion that there was "probably" no God.
Sherine said the word was included to ensure the posters didn't breach transit advertising regulations, which stipulate ads should not offend religious people.
Brad Sciullo, a five-foot-11-inch, 180-pound chef, neatly packed away the Belly Bruiser at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pa., on Monday.
The mountain of beef weighed about seven kilograms on its own. After lettuce, cheese, onions, banana peppers, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish and bun were added, the mega-burger tipped the scales at more than nine kilograms.
Sciullo, of Uniontown, said he was surprised he managed to finish the sandwich. "About three hours into it, things got tough," he said.
He was the first person ever to finish the burger at the restaurant, which is about 160 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh. The pub challenges people to finish the burger in under five hours.
He said he decided to take on the challenge "to see if I could [eat it]."
Sciullo received $400, three t-shirts and a certificate in recognition of successfully chowing down on the Belly Bruiser.
Other people older and larger than Sciullo have unsuccessfully attempted to consume the Belly Bruiser in the past, said pub owner Dennis Liegey.
Liegey said he suspects Sciullo will have a "burger hangover" for some time.
With files from the Associated Press
]]>Sure, gasoline prices have come down lately. But to 10.9 cents a litre?
That's what Kelly Joosten and dozens of other motorists paid at a Citgo station in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., on Monday. The sign advertised premium fuel at $3.43 US a gallon [about $1.07 Cdn per litre at the latest dollar exchange rate], but the pump read 34.9 cents US a gallon [10.9 cents Cdn per litre].
"That was amazing," said Joosten, who normally spends about $100 US to fill up her 1998 Ford Expedition.
Joosten proudly showed off her receipt for nearly 100 litres at just over $10 US. She said she saw other motorists filling gas cans, too, at the discounted price.
Station owner J.P. Raval says the attendant on duty couldn't figure out why the station was suddenly so busy.
Raval estimated 30 to 40 customers fuelled up at the incorrect pump price -- between 200 and 300 gallons' worth -- for about 90 minutes.
"People kept coming so fast," Raval said. "Everything was crowded. It was like a fairground."
]]>Chestnut downed 45 slices of pizza in 10 minutes on Sunday to win the first Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship in New York's Times Square.
The 24-year-old from San Jose, Calif., said he fasted for more than a day to prepare for the contest. He folded and squeezed the slices to make them easier to swallow.
Chestnut rocketed to competitive-eating celebrity when he won Coney Island's July Fourth hotdog-eating contest in 2007. He took the title again this summer by gulping down 59 dogs in 10 minutes.
He also won a contest in Tennessee last month by wolfing down 93 Krystal hamburgers in 8 minutes.
With files from the Associated Press
]]>Luxury U.S. retailer Neiman Marcus is hoping someone has that kind of cash. On Tuesday, it unveiled its Christmas Book - a glossy 95-page ode to excess -
despite a global financial crisis that has badly shaken consumer confidence among even the biggest spenders.
U.S. Luxury sales fell 4.8 per cent in September versus an 11 per cent rise in August that was boosted by foreign tourists, according to SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Inc's MasterCard Advisors.
Still, Neiman vice-president Ginger Reeder maintains wealthy customers aren't much affected by the economy, but that so-called aspirational shoppers - more middle-income yet yearning for touches of luxury - could be stretched thin.
With files from Reuters and the Associated Press
]]>The countrywide competition was officially launched at BBC Scotland in Glasgow by Iain Logie Baird, whose Argyll-born grandfather John Logie Baird invented the television in the 1920s.
The search is part of a campaign by Digital UK, the company tasked with implementing the switchover to digital television, which is being phased in across Scotland from next month.
The organization said it wanted to highlight the fact that most televisions can be converted to digital.
It also hopes the search will result in the discovery of televisions of historical importance, including sets designed by John Logie Baird.
Baird, who is the curator of television at the National Media Museum in Bradford, said: "It will be fantastic if we can find some examples of Baird-branded televisions and bring them into the digital era.
"It's great to be involved in this exciting step in broadcasting history.
"The switch to digital is the first step towards a revolution in the way we watch TV and opens the door for further developments such as high-definition television, combinations of services with high-speed broadband and mobile phone video broadcasting."
Paul Hughes, Digital UK's national manager in Scotland, said: "We hope that by switching the oldest working telly in Scotland, it will prove to viewers, particularly the elderly, that there is no need to go out and spend large amounts of money on a new set and that older sets can be converted easily for little cost."
]]>If the $700-billion US price tag attached to the failed Wall Street bailout plan sounds like a lot, well, it is.
]]> The Associated PressIf the $700-billion US price tag attached to the failed Wall Street bailout plan sounds like a lot, well, it is.
You can spend $700 billion US in a lot of different ways.
For instance, you could buy a war - the U.S. has spent $648 billion US on the war in Iraq so far.
That much money could ensure universal health-care coverage in the U.S. for six years or upgrade America's most deficient bridges four times over.
Or you could build more than 1,700 bridges to nowhere.
Surely all of those would eventually take you somewhere.
With $700 billion US you could easily run Denmark, which had a paltry gross domestic product of $312 billion US last year.
That much money could also pay back every single outstanding student loan, fund the U.S. intelligence budget beyond 2020, or help the Gulf Coast recover from five Hurricane Katrinas.
]]>Some 15,000 enthusiasts have assembled the world's largest jigsaw puzzle in the southern German town of Ravensburg, Europe's biggest puzzle maker said.
Puzzle maker Ravensburger AG said 1,141,800 pieces were put together in only five hours on Sunday, forming a nearly 6,500-square foot (600-square meter) puzzle that almost covered the town square.
"We really like puzzling," Ravensburg resident Sonja Haussner said at the event.
A notary has submitted the result to the Guinness Book of World Records. The current record is a 212,323-piece puzzle measuring some 35 feet by 38 feet (10.8 meters by 11.68 meters) put together in Singapore in 2002.
A Guinness Book spokeswoman said Monday that the Ravensburg claim had been submitted but was not yet approved.
The participants assembled more-than 4,000 smaller jigsaw puzzles, each with 252 pieces and standard puzzle motifs like animals, maps and landscapes. The rectangles were then taken to the nearby town square and put together into the single massive 65-foot by 98-foot (20-meter by 30-meter) puzzle.
"We tried and we succeeded," said Heinrich Huntelmann, a spokesman for Ravensburger AG.
]]>One after the other, the models strutted across the stage to bouncy '80s dance tunes, all showing off designs of the same article of clothing — adult diapers.
Japan has one of the world's most rapidly aging societies, and the Tokyo fashion show Thursday proved the country's diaper producers are intent on keeping the elderly clean and dry.
"Diapers are something that people don't want to look at," said Kiyoko Hamada of the Aging Lifestyle Research Center, a leading organizer of the show.
"But if you make them attractive, then people can learn about them more easily," she said.
Indeed, adult diapers are an increasingly common item in Japan, home to one of the world's longest average lifespans. More than 20 per cent of the population is over 65, and the country is forecast to have the globe's largest number of centenarians — 1 million — by 2050, the U.N. says.
That means a booming market for adult diapers.
The Nikkei, Japan's leading business newspaper, conducted a survey this week that showed sales of adult diapers have more than doubled over the past decade, reaching an estimated 52.5 billion yen ($500 million US) this year.
The fashion show itself was half camp, half instruction. Speakers blared oldie hits such as "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood as models jaunted on the stage with diapers pulled on over black tights.
Each model held a number to designate the model of the diaper. Some of the models, all volunteers, playfully shook their hips on the stage.
The crowd of several hundred people included diaper manufacturers, nursing home workers and doctors.
Nursing home caretakers Mitsuru and Aya Habuka watched with rapt attention, exclaiming when diaper models they hadn't seen before were displayed on stage.
"It was great to see so many different types of diapers all in one showing," gushed Aya Habuka, 26. "I learned a lot. This is the first time that diapers are being considered as fashion."
]]>Pennsylvania-based Jerry Grubb cares so deeply about the future of his former diner that he is offering to give away the 1950s-style restaurant for free.
He has only one stipulation: The new owner must move it and reopen it.
"These types of diners are really making a comeback, and I'm surprised no one locally wants it," Grubb said. "It's an excellent piece, and you can't get them much cheaper."
Locals called it the end of an era when Grubb's Diner shut its doors last year to make way for a pharmacy. Grubb, the manager and cook for 52 years, decided it was time to hang up his spatula, but he didn't have the heart to demolish the restaurant.
Instead, he dismantled it and paid a moving company to haul the 68-foot-long silver diner a mile up the road from its original location in the central Pennsylvania town of Huntingdon. It now sits on two flatbed trailers, empty except for the original light fixtures, booths and bar.
The diner was recently appraised for $100,000 US, but Grubb said he is willing to negotiate a lower price or donate it to the right person. Grubb bought the diner in 1964 from the Swingle Diner Co. in Middlesex, N.J.
In an ideal world, someone would reopen it in Huntingdon and bring back the 15-cent pie slice, said Barb Blair, a longtime Grubb family employee.
"People came here from all over," she said. "Jerry's mother would make the pies, and people flocked here because they were that good."
]]>Mature Canadians are apparently making the biggest waves, while younger Canadian cruisers have some catching up to do with only 33 per cent of those under 45 reporting having had sex while aboard a cruise ship.
Couples from British Columbia and Ontario who responded to the online survey were twice as likely to have sex at sea compared to couples from Quebec, the survey suggests.
Though the cabin was named the single most adventurous place to have sex aboard a cruise ship, Canadians 35 and younger are 67 per cent more likely to imagine having sex in a lifeboat, pool/hot tub and on the bridge, the survey suggests. In addition, nearly two-thirds of men surveyed fantasize about having sex outside the cabin.
The survey was conducted online by Leger Marketing from September 2005 to September 2008.
Just over 1,000 men and women over the age of 18 years responded. The margin of error for a sample of this size is plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
]]>