Odd News

Still no Christmas card in the mail box? Don't worry, there is a chance that your friends and relatives haven't forgotten about you, but the mailman just misplaced it. Pray to God that you will get it before you'll be dead and buried. Ethel Martin of Oberlin, may God rest her soul, was less fortunate and the Christmas c ard that she should have received it back in 1914 from her cousins in Alma, Nebraska. The postcard featuring a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl was dated December 23, 1914, and was kept for the last century by unknown person, says Oberlin Postmaster Steve Schultz. He also added that despite the fact that Ethel is deceased, the office thought to send the card to a relative and that is how they found Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law who was seriously curios about the place where it was kept all this time and why it has such a good shape. She believed that somewhere in Illinois it was found the card and was interested how it got there. The one-cent postage of the early 20th century wouldn't have covered the value of the Christmas card placed inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin. Poor Ethel, I bet she was disappointed by fact that her cousins forgot about her, if she only knew…Anyway, take care to all your Christmas cards or it may get to the other end of the world. Definitely, there are cards on the way for you as well, so keep your fingers crossed for the mailman to not misplace it.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071214/ap_on_fe_st/odd_long_lost_card;_ylt=AunNzn4Qs.Na1p4gyGS0ious0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Still no Christmas card in the mail box? Don't worry, there is a chance that your friends and relatives haven't forgotten about you, but the mailman just misplaced it. Pray to God that you will get it before you'll be dead and buried. Ethel Martin of Oberlin, may God rest her soul, was less fortunate and the Christmas c ard that she should have received it back in 1914 from her cousins in Alma, Nebraska. The postcard featuring a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl was dated December 23, 1914, and was kept for the last century by unknown person, says Oberlin Postmaster Steve Schultz. He also added that despite the fact that Ethel is deceased, the office thought to send the card to a relative and that is how they found Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law who was seriously curios about the place where it was kept all this time and why it has such a good shape. She believed that somewhere in Illinois it was found the card and was interested how it got there. The one-cent postage of the early 20th century wouldn't have covered the value of the Christmas card placed inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin. Poor Ethel, I bet she was disappointed by fact that her cousins forgot about her, if she only knew…Anyway, take care to all your Christmas cards or it may get to the other end of the world. Definitely, there are cards on the way for you as well, so keep your fingers crossed for the mailman to not misplace it.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071214/ap_on_fe_st/odd_long_lost_card;_ylt=AunNzn4Qs.Na1p4gyGS0ious0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

The Houston Chronicle the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, thought to do something new and exciting this Christmas by organizing CHRISTMAS TREE PHOTO CONTEST. You can show your tastes of decorating the tree to an entire world and if you win the money, you will have something extra to buy presents to the loved ones. If you are interested in the contest, the promotion period lasts from 13 December until 26 December 2007 at noon. What do you have to do and what it involves? Well, you will have to register online at www.chron.com/holidaycontest by the due date, showing pictures of your lovely decorated Christmas tree or why not the one of your neighbor, if he allows you to. The only important thing to remember is that entries received after the deadline date will not be counted and you can post only one per day per household. Now comes the part you've all been expecting for, the prize. From all entries received a winner will be chosen and he/she will get 10 Cinemark box office coupons and 10 Cinemark concession coupons. Also, the two runners-up each will receive five Cinemark box office coupons and five Cinemark concession coupons. If it's your lucky day and Santa decided to make you an after Christmas present, they will notify you by email or phone and prizes will be delivered to residence or place of business. Remember that everything depends on how many recommends on chron.com your picture will receive, therefore call all your friends or text them tell them online to vote for you, because it is crucial. One more important thing you should know is that The Houston Chronicle is not responsible for lost, late or misdirected entries or entries not received in time. Entries received after the deadline date will not be counted. Being informed of what is all about and prepared to make people gasp in amazement at the sight of your Christmas tree, register in. Good luck!

related story: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5376608.html

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. - An Long Island family was robbed, and someone stole their Christmas lights from their house, they left a note for the thief, in stead of filling a report about the theft. And what a note it was! A sign, wishing the thief a "Merry Christmas" saying: "You stole our lights but not our spirit. Merry Christmas." According to Susan Brown and Peter Fitzgerald, the blue lights were taken sometime over the weekend, from an evergreen tree outside their home. This theft disrupted a family tradition begun as a symbol of hope after the premature birth fo Brown's grandson, Tyler Gulluscio, in 2003. "I don't know who took the lights," said 4-year, today a healthy boy in telephone interview. "Maybe it was a squirrel or a porcupine or a bad guy." "He doesn't quite understand why someone would takesomething from somebody else and not to give it back," said Tyler's dad. "Even if we never know who took them, if they just put the lights back, that would be great!" Fitzgerald says his family really hopes to see the blue lights back on the evergreen come Christmas Eve, when the family will gather at Brown's home for dinner. Until then, they have strung multicolored lights on the tree.

related story: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-litree1212,0,5717802.story

by Zuzana Hanzelova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Everyone heard about holiday madness, but few would have thought that a single holiday could actually make someone fanatic. Cindy Johnson from Lyndon Township declares herself an ornament addicted and a Christmas junkie and not without reason. She has 42 Christmas trees and she deck the halls with all of them. The story starts back in 1975, when some of us have not seen the light of day yet, so it has quite a history. Because there wasn't any more room on her Christmas tree for ornaments, she decided to buy another one, than another one and she did not stopped until she made a collection of 42. Of course some of them were given by people that bought a new one and now she has a collection called by her the Charlie Brown trees. As a sentimental collector, Cindy remembers where she got every ornament and that means a lot due to the fact that she has owns 2,000 Hallmark ornaments and 500 "generic" ornaments. Still, she doesn't want to stop and she loves the hunt for new ornaments every single winter season starting with Dayspring Gifts in downtown Chelsea from where she intends to acquire this year 100 more. Each of the ranch rooms is decorated with the exception of one bathroom, while each tree has a theme, which could be Winnie-the-Pooh or romance or cartoon characters. Furthermore, each ornament is carefully wrapped in its own box. So many "each" makes you think that it must be a tiring process when the Christmas passes to start packing up. The pride of the collection is a 7.5 feet high tree sitting in the family room and the smallest tree has 6 inches, but he's been looked after and Cindy bought its own tiny ornaments. She sees them as her children and she talks about them exactly like others would speak about theirs, therefore she finds it difficult to say which she likes the most. It's a nice hobby and it's lovely. Because she is such a Christmas lover, we wish that Santa bring her the desired present: the rare 1982 Hallmark Frosty Friends ornament. Merry Christmas, ho, ho, ho!

related story: http://www.mlive.com/holidays/index.ssf/2007/12/christmas_trees.html

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

The Yahoo search technique wabbadabba got into the Christmas mood. Wabbadabba decided to hand out prizes as a Christmas gifts. It basically let users to win prizes as they search. The prizes are various, we could mention the flat screen TV, Nintendo or £5 and £10 Amazon vouchers. Mr. Ben Akin-Smith, the head of innovation at wabbadabba, expressed his attitude towards the simple giving of presents for fun which is important during Christmas. But wabbadabba also wants to help people, who are in a financial crisis. "We also feel strongly about giving to those less fortunate hence the twelfth day has a slightly more serious message, with twelve lucky wabbadabba users not only winning Amazon vouchers but having two drinking wells made safe for families in Sierra Leone in their name," said Ben Akin-Smith. Even though this winning is simple and doesn't want to do any wrong to people, there is still about 15 percent of winners who didn't picked their prizes up in some worry of various catches. People are just afraid to do something they are not convinced that it wouldn't harm them. Ben Akin-Smith stated: "It's taken people a while to realize there are no catches and it really is as simple as searching and winning, but people are really getting the hang of it now. Prizes are flying off the shelves as more and more people use wabbadabba to inject a bit more fun in to what can be a mundane everyday task."

by Daniela Simkova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

I have lived enough to see this happening: the world gone mad? I heard about silly things and silly people doing a lousy job hiding their tracks or stuff like that, but it is for the first time that someone just got away stealing a Porsche using nothing else but a flower pot. The story took place in Germany on Tuesday when a 56-years old man was backing out of his garage in his grey Porsche 997 Turbo. Until now nothing strange, not even the fact that he heard a scraping noise and got out to investigate and found a flower pot jamming one of the car's tires. The comedy starts when he bends down to remove the flower pot and a thief pushes him aside and gets in the car driving off. The poor man could do nothing more than step aside so the thief doesn't run him over. Fortunately enough the flower pot remained as a guarantee that eventually the car will be returned. Meanwhile, the former owner of the Porsche can enjoy his new pot. We thank police in the western city of Bonn for giving the material for such a good laugh. Although we are deeply sorry for the owner of the car, we can only say cheers to the thief, he's a genius. It is a one time event to trade a flower pot for a Porsche 997 Turbo that costs around 150,000 euro ($221,000). He even launched a new trend, the flower pot as the best theft- tool ever!

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071206/ap_on_re_us/airport_flu_shots;_ylt=AtI2eszv.rl2yA4VZRyyJCqs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

When thinking about Santa, Rudolf, good and nasty kids, North Pole and all these kind of things which make the Christmas holiday special, I often get the feeling that something must be wrong there. I'm sure you know what I mean. Parents try to make you believe that the presents were bought to you by a fat old man who seems to be in extremely good health condition for his age /Guess he's turning at least 157 this year/ and if you ask them questions and except a rational answer, they will tell you that you are just too young to understand that sleighs can fly even without wings. Seriously worried about my mum's and dad's mental condition I decided to make a research on the made up and false stories which other parents tell their kids. Check this out! There are kids in the world who believe that Santa eats the cookies they leave for him in the living room. I am sorry to tell you guys, but this is so not true! As you all know, sweets and candies cause diabetes and Santa's doctor forbid him to eat them. It is Rudolf who enjoys the cookies every year. I was surprised to find out that many parents support their children's belief that Santa reads their letters. This used to be true, but since he can hardly see due to his old age, he hires elves and a literate polar bear to do so instead of him. As they are not precise in their work, it might happen that you will not find the present you asked for under your Christmas tree. And now the most important Santa's secret to reveal: The Sleigh. A Swedish consultancy has found out that Santa has 34 microseconds at each stop "to slide down the chimney, drop off the present, nibble on his cookies and milk"../you know the truth about the cookies/.."and hop back on his sleigh. Sounds impossible, does not it? It is indeed, it is a magic!

by Eva Matova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Killing duo, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are now a romantic legend, two people, who`s love had been interrupted by bad police guys. According to the famous movie, (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967) it was an elegant couple, possessing a perfect image, fast cars and automatic guns. Just like two innocent turtle-doves, who meet up the crime scene by mistake and finally killed about 20 people. The couple met in 1930. Bonnie immediately dropped off her boring job of a waitress and begun to enjoy the life full of adventures in the gang of her new lover. Their carrier was turbulent, but at the end of the day not very profitable- thefts, bank robberies and gas station burglaries, brought them around 2000 dollar, which was a very funny income at that time. They were permanently on the run, slept over in wooden dwellings or car, which makes the elegant wardrobe from the movie only a magic film trick. To count all their crimes is impossible; they didn't have a plan in many cases and shoot after everyone. Their hate of police was bestial and after killing 9 policemen, the couple became a number one enemy of the state and hot candidates for an electric seat. Bonnie and Clyde died after 270 shots had been fired to their Ford V8. The satisfaction of this kind is not in use anymore, for the luck of a young couple from Philadelphia. Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, and Edward K. Anderton, 25, were charged Friday with identity theft, forgery, unlawful use of a computer and a laundry list of other counts. They were lovers and partners as Bonnie and Clyde had been once. Maybe they will reveal the source of their inspiration and a new movie will soon arrive to our theatres.

by Romana Schlesingerova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

There has never been a novel more related to real life than that of Kafka, The Trial. Indeed the world is chaotic and full of ambiguities. In order to realize how truthful the novel really is, you should review the absurdity of the judiciary system and nothing can be more obvious than the incident that took place in Italy recently. In Italia the court of Naples has on roll a criminal trial against a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros. Until now nothing strange, however the chaotic system of justice reveals a reality good enough for Kafka's novel. The court sent subpoenas to Titti, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino â€" the Italian names for the characters Tweety, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and his girlfriend Daisy, to may testify in the counterfeiting case. It may seem hilarious, but now Tweety might have the chance to complain directly to the judge and say: I thought I saw a pussycat! According to lawyers it was a clerical error worthy of a Looney Tunes cartoon; only the companies and their legal representatives should have been named, but clerks also wrote in the witness list the names of the cartoons that decorated the toys and gadgets the man had reproduced, stated Fiorenza Sorotto, vice president of Disney Company Italia, to the Associated Press in a telephone interview. Sorotto joked that it's a pity the characters cannot come to the trial, but they are residents of Disneyland. Furthermore, annoyed by the fact that the trial will be delayed by the fact that the Naples court will have to rewrite the summons, Disney lawyer Cristina Ravelli said she hopes the characters won't be prosecuted for failing to appear. Nor Warner Bros or Naples court were found for comments.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071204/ap_on_fe_st/looney_witnesses;_ylt=AomUt1NvhnStynFY6ZxNqp.s0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

There has never been a novel more related to real life than that of Kafka, The Trial. Indeed the world is chaotic and full of ambiguities. In order to realize how truthful the novel really is, you should review the absurdity of the judiciary system and nothing can be more obvious than the incident that took place in Italy recently. In Italia the court of Naples has on roll a criminal trial against a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros. Until now nothing strange, however the chaotic system of justice reveals a reality good enough for Kafka's novel. The court sent subpoenas to Titti, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino â€" the Italian names for the characters Tweety, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and his girlfriend Daisy, to may testify in the counterfeiting case. It may seem hilarious, but now Tweety might have the chance to complain directly to the judge and say: I thought I saw a pussycat! According to lawyers it was a clerical error worthy of a Looney Tunes cartoon; only the companies and their legal representatives should have been named, but clerks also wrote in the witness list the names of the cartoons that decorated the toys and gadgets the man had reproduced, stated Fiorenza Sorotto, vice president of Disney Company Italia, to the Associated Press in a telephone interview. Sorotto joked that it's a pity the characters cannot come to the trial, but they are residents of Disneyland. Furthermore, annoyed by the fact that the trial will be delayed by the fact that the Naples court will have to rewrite the summons, Disney lawyer Cristina Ravelli said she hopes the characters won't be prosecuted for failing to appear. Nor Warner Bros or Naples court were found for comments.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071204/ap_on_fe_st/looney_witnesses;_ylt=AomUt1NvhnStynFY6ZxNqp.s0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Since the launch of Sputnik there has been a continuous competition between countries to launch more and more space satellites and space shuttles in space. Although Russia is the pioneer when it comes to space, USA certainly takes over the leadership with more space shuttles and trips to the moon and so on. However, from Asia China is entering the competition with the 2003 performance when a Long March 2F rocket blasted off from the Gobi desert launch pad at 0900 (0100 GMT). The craft called Shenzhou V was carrying a single astronaut, Yang Liwei, and it made out of China the third country, after the former Soviet Union and the United States, with such achievements. In October, China launched its first lunar probe, the Chang'e 1, and as a proof of the complete success a photo featuring a patch of grey moon surface splotched with craters was released last week. However, some Chinese Internet users compared it with an almost identical lunar image from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2005 and said that it is plagiarizing NASA, according to the local media released on Monday. Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist for the lunar probe, told the Beijing News that it can be similar because they had aimed at the same area of the moon's southern hemisphere, but in fact studied carefully a difference of a crater shows that either the resolution of the American photo was not high enough, or a new pit might have been generated by an asteroid hitting the moon between 2005 and 2007. Furthermore, some data collected by the satellite would be shared with the public. Due to the scientific and military benefits as well as domestic political gains from its boost to patriotism China has made an ambitious space program which involves a third manned mission, Shenzhou VII, into space next year that will also have a spacewalk. Inspired by their neighbors other Asian powers like Japan or India have also announced lunar plans. More to come…

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071203/hl_nm/natural_antidepressant_dc;_ylt=Ags0kHeK619RmtQYV8yvUUis0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Mr. John Darwin, a canoeist who got lost in 2002, walked into a police station in London. A man, whom everybody considered dead, is alive and we can assume he enjoys the freedom with his family. "Mr Darwin is fit and well and relatives have been informed of his whereabouts. It is not known at this time where he has spent the last five-and-a-half years," said a police spokesman. An expansive search in 2002 of all police officers presented at that time, even the coastguards headed into failure. They searched from Hartlepool coast to Staithes with no result of the search. Mr. John Darwin seemed "untraceable". "People die, have a funeral, they have a headstone, there is something to mark the fact they existed on this earth. But without a body, I don't know how we can mark John's life," was a reaction of Mr. John´s wife Anne Darwin. "All I want is to bury his body. It would enable me to move on. It's difficult to grieve without bringing things to a close, but as it is I'm in limbo and there's nothing I can do." Mrs. Darwin´s sadness was of great extend, she needed to have at least something that would help her to move on. Today is the end of this nightmare for both, Anne and John. They can live in harmony once again.

by Daniela Simkova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Jennifer Gooch, originally from Texas, founded a virtual "lost and finds" for gloves. This nice idea came onto her mind as she was in Pittsburgh during the snowy winter. Jennifer could not believe why there are so many gloves on the street and nobody cares for them. Nobody misses the other half of the glove pair. Jennifer Gooch then started onecoldhand.com web page in desire to get all the gloves reunited. But when she found a glove laying on the campus of her University, she was not sure if to pick it up. Somebody could come and look for his lost glove mate. So Jennifer developed a sticker method of letting people know where they can find their missing gloves. As Jennifer picked up the lost glove, she put the sticker on its place, with a note: "Missing a glove? onecoldhand.com." "It's kind of whimsical and bittersweet, It makes you feel there's this opportunity for benevolence," Jennifer expressed her attitude for the onecoldhand.com. She would like to spread One Cold Hand project to other cities. She is working in collaboration with two women who try to set up and run the onecoldhand-nyc.com in New York. Jennifer Gooch did not reunited any of the gloves she found, but she is still hoping. She said: "If I have one person find their glove, then the entire thing is totally worth it."

by Daniela Simkova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.