Mud soccer?

Link

Wild horses elephants can’t keep Sri Lanka from voting

Wild elephants

Security forces armed with loud hailers were deployed in eastern Sri Lanka Monday to drive away wild elephants blocking access to polling booths, police said.

Villagers in Wellaveli told the authorities that they were unable to vote at the first local elections in 14 years because a herd of elephants had blocked their polling booth, a police official in the area said.

“We sent a team of commandos in armoured personnel carriers and loud hailers and sirens to drive away the elephants,” the official said. “The roads have now been cleared.”

Down with giant religious teapots!

giant religious teapot

A religious commune in Malaysia’s Muslim heartland that worshipped a bizarre collection of structures including a giant teapot, vase and umbrella was being torn down yesterday.

About 40 workers with bulldozers and lorries destroyed the “subversive” teapot and other symbols of the pan-religious Sky Kingdom, in Terengannu state. An assembly hall, a concrete boat and a temple-like structure that was under construction were also demolished. About 30 members of the commune watched but did not intervene.

Members and visitors to the commune believe that water from the teapot, which poured into the giant vase, held purifying powers. They follow the teaching of Ariffin Mohammed, 65, better known as Ayah (“Master”) Pin, who holds that every religion is equally valid and that anyone can find his or her own path to God. His settlement has been a popular destination for Muslim, Chinese and Indian Malaysians, as well as foreign tourists.

People get more liberal as they get older?

Busting Myth

The stereotype of a cranky old man, set in his ways, getting more conservative by the day, is an enduring one. But new research has debunked the myth that people become more conservative as they age.

By comparing surveys of various age groups taken over a span of more than 30 years, sociologists found that in general, Americans’ opinions veer toward the liberal as they grow older.

……………………………..

Nah, we don’t get more liberal. We get less conservative and begin to realize that all that stuff we used to fume and roar about isn’t as important as we thought. Youth has a lot of disadvantages…one of them is not having enough experience to see things for what they are. Aging brings perspective.

The secret to living 100 years? Boxing, baby.

Boxing widow, 100,

A 100-year-old Manchester woman puts her good health down to boxing. Molly Reeves pulls on a pair of gloves and practises her moves once a week to keep in shape.

Molly, of Chadderton, told The Sun: “I feel a bit achy afterwards but I really do enjoy it. It’s a giggle.”

She loves the sport so much she says Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan, 21, is her hero – and adds he is “cute”.

Neither rain nor sleet (nor any of that stuff) will stay this courier…

determined driver

A Chinese lorry driver whose vehicle was wrecked in a smash bought a crash helmet and carried on his journey.

A police patrol [stopped] the badly damaged, speeding truck as it weaved from side-to-side on a motorway outside Wuhan city. Officers could not believe their eyes when they saw the driver wearing his crash helmet in the crushed shell of his cab.