Following Manifest Destiny, let’s Head West, Young Man!!!!
No word on whether or not the Pub was named “The Blue Oyster.” Somewhere, Laxation is celebrating in his rainbow t-shirt.
Gay pub wins right to ban straights
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Australian hotel catering for homosexuals has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bars so as to provide a safe and comfortable venue for gay men.
In what is believed to be a first for Australia, the Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in the southern city of Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality.
Australia's equal opportunity laws prevent people being discriminated against based on race, religion or sexuality.
But Peel Hotel owner Tom McFeely said the ruling was necessary to provide gay men with a non-threatening atmosphere to freely express their sexuality.
"If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance," Peel told Australian radio on Monday.
McFeely said that, while the hotel welcomed everyone, its gay clientele had expressed discomfort over the number of heterosexuals and lesbians coming to the venue in the past year.
He said there were more than 2,000 venues in Melbourne that catered to heterosexuals, but his hotel was the only one marketing itself predominantly to gay men.
Victoria's state human rights commission backed the ruling, saying it was in line with equal opportunity guidelines defending the rights of groups subject to discrimination.
Commission chief Helen Szoke said the hotel's gay clientele had experienced harassment and violence. "(They) also have felt as though they've been like a zoo exhibit with big groups of women on hens' parties coming to the club," Szoke told reporters.
McFeely told the radio that the hotel had received homophobic telephone calls since news of the ruling was made public.
If you’ve heard it once you’ve heard it a million times, ALWAYS SECURE YOUR SOLID GOLD BATHTUBS!!!!
$1M gold bathtub stolen from Japan hotel
TOKYO - A glittering bathtub made of gold worth nearly $1 million has been stolen from a resort hotel, an official said Wednesday.
A worker at Kominato Hotel Mikazuki in Kamogawa, south of Tokyo, notified police that the fancy tub was missing from the hotel's guest bathroom on the 10th floor, according to a local police official who only gave his surname, Ogawa.
The round tub, worth $987,000, is made of 18-karat gold and weighs 176 pounds.
The tub, flanked by two crane statues, has been a main feature of the hotel's shared bathroom. Visitors can take a dip in the tub, but it is only available a few hours a day "for security reasons," the hotel's Web site said.
Someone apparently cut the chain attached to the door of a small section of the bathroom where the bathtub was placed, but not riveted, and made off with the tub, Ogawa said.
"We have no witness information and there are no video cameras," he said. "We have no idea who took it," the official said.
An elephant extortionist. What next?
Your food or my tusks! Elephant robs motorists
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An elephant in eastern India has sparked complaints from motorists who accuse it of blocking traffic and refusing to allow vehicles to pass unless drivers give it food, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The Hindustan Times said the elephant was scouting for food on a highway in the eastern state of Orissa, forcing motorists to roll down their windows and get out of the car.
"The tusker then inserts its trunk inside the vehicle and sniffs for food," local resident Prabodh Mohanty, who has come across the elephant twice, was quoted as saying.
"If you are carrying vegetables and banana inside your vehicle, then it will gulp them and allow you to go."
If a commuter does not wind down his window or resists opening the vehicle door, the elephant stands in front of the car until the driver allows him to carry out his routine inspection.
Forestry officials told the newspaper that the elephant is old and is therefore looking for easy food.
"So far, it has not harmed anybody," said Sirish Mohanty, a forest ranger working in the state.
"We are telling commuters regularly not to tease the elephant. But if people don't heed to our advice and harass the tusker, then it can retaliate."
Elephants are a protected and endangered species in India, which has nearly half of the world's 60,000 Asian elephants.
But conservationists say its population has fallen rapidly in recent years because of loss of habitat as a result of human encroachment into forest areas.
This would have made a fun Germany or Florida except there are no subways in Florida.
Woman mistakes subway for underground car park
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German mistook a subway entrance for an underground car park and her vehicle got stuck on the stairs, police said on Wednesday.
The 52-year-old drove her Volkswagen Beetle across the pavement in central Duesseldorf and into the entrance where it ground to a halt about five steps down, police said.
Police estimated the damage at around 1,500 euros (1,000 pounds).
And you thought Reality Television had hit rock bottom before. Nope. But it has now…
Organ donor show to go on despite criticism
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch broadcaster will air a show this week in which a terminally ill woman selects a recipient for her kidneys from three contestants, despite government calls for the programme to be scrapped.
Newspaper De Telegraaf said BNN would broadcast The Big Donorshow on Friday during which the 37-year-old woman will choose from three people with kidney problems.
She will make her choice based on the contestants' history, profile and conversations with their families and friends. Viewers will be able to send text messages advising her during the 80-minute show.
"The chance for a kidney for the contestants is 33 percent. This is much higher than that for people on a waiting list. You would expect it to be better but it is worse," the daily cited BNN Chairman Laurens Drillich as saying.
Ruling coalition parties Christian Democrat (CD) and the conservative Christian Union have called the show "wretched" and unethical.
BNN says it wants to highlight the difficulties faced by kidney sufferers in getting donor organs as a tribute to BNN founder Bart de Graaff, who died of kidney failure five years ago, despite several transplants.
The Netherlands is a pioneer of reality shows like "Big Brother."
This is pretty cool. What are the odds that the Queen would find this kid’s balloon?
Boy's balloon finds pen-pal: the Queen
LONDON (Reuters) - A 4-year-old boy who released a balloon with a message hoping to find a pen pal in a foreign land ended up having a correspondence with the Queen.
Tom Stancombe let go of his helium balloon in Hampshire, but rather than flying across to France or half way around the world, it ended up just 20 miles (32 km) away, landing inside Windsor Castle, the Daily Mail reported.
The Queen instructed her personal assistant to reply and so the monarch and the boy, helped by his parents, exchanged a series of letters, mostly about the fact that one of the boy's ancestors, an artist, had works in the royal art collection.
"She (the Queen) was delighted to find that your balloon had travelled all the way to the gardens at Windsor Castle," the monarch's assistant wrote.
Asked if he thought his son would be exchanging any more letters with the Queen, Tom's father said: "I don't expect we'll get another one, but I think it's incredible they bothered replying at all."
Another Germany or Florida candidate, except that a fast food chain selling chili sauce would only be Florida.
Wendy's manager shot over chili sauce
MIAMI - A manager at a fast-food restaurant was shot several times in the arm early Tuesday trying to protect the chili sauce, authorities said.
A man in the Wendy's drive-through argued with an employee because he wanted more of the condiment, police said. The worker told the customer that restaurant policy prohibited a customer from getting more than three packets.
The man insisted on 10, reports said. The employee complied, but police said the customer wanted even more.
The manager came out to speak to the man, said Miami-Dade police spokesman Mary Walter. The customer then shot the manager, who was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The customer fled in his vehicle with a female passenger, authorities said.
