Interesting News Of The Week - 21/05/2012

Hello Thursday, looks like it's time for another post.

I was debating on whether to post this yesterday, seeing as it was my birthday or leave it until today, but I thought I'd keep the tradition of Thursday's.

Beijing sets 'two flies only' guidelines

The first story this week is a story from the Beijing and is taking place in public toilets.
Yes you did hear me right, Beijing's public toilets.

So basically the authorities in Beijing have set some new standards for their public toilets, including my favourite one, they should contain no more than two flies.
Yeah that's right they are only allowing there to be two flies in their toilets, it sounds ridiculous really, but its the truth.

The main toilets they have applied the rules for is in places such as tourist spots, but it is not clear whether failing washrooms will be punished and if so, how.
I have an idea, why don't they just build a mini security system for them, like at the airport, where they have to check in and out with there own little passports, with little bee guards in case more than two get in, I mean come on, really?

The new rules also cover cleaning, the use of equipment, training for attendants, odour and cleaning litter bins, so there's going to be little fly-ports everywhere, yay!

Funny thing is despite all these new rules there's only a sort of rule covering what the government referred to as "discarded items" (so in our terms, tampons and condoms etc.), and that's that there should be no more than two in any public convenience (two at a time please ladies and gentlemen).

The new standards also require signs in both Chinese and English to be installed in the toilets, well that's nice at least they accounted for us, what about all the other countries in the world though?

The Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment had something to say about all the new rules and that was that the regulations aimed to standardise toilet management at places such as parks, railway stations, hospitals and shopping malls.
Oh brilliant, why don't they just rename themselves "Flies R Us", and they can have "Fly-less Parks", "Fly Rails" and other related fly names.

An unnamed (hidden) official from the commission told local media that the guidelines on flies were meant for easy monitoring, on the flies or on us?

However media reports cast doubt over whether the guidelines could be enforced properly, I really hope they are, could be funny to see how they manage it all.

A commentary published in the Beijing News said one central Beijing district implemented a similar rule in 2008 when the city hosted the Olympic Games, but sanitation and hygiene still varied from toilet to toilet.
Effort should be invested on educating the public to use public toilets in a better manner, said the commentary.
So looks like Beijing are going back to potty training.

Here's the BBC's coverage of the story (please forgive the man's voice in the video):

'Don't win Eurovision' Spain

The second story this week is to do with the Eurovision song contest, at the moment this story is taking place in Spain.
This stories a bit of a short one, sorry.

Spain's Eurovision contestant has admitted the country would struggle to host the event if it were to win the competition.
So directors from broadcasters TVE joked to Pastora Soler, who will represent them on Saturday, "Please, don't win the Eurovision!"
Surely it should be "Please, don't win the Eurovision!", but no, she has been told Not to win. 

She told ABC Punto radio (a radio station, hence radio) "If we won, I think it would be impossible to stage the next edition because it costs so much money,".
So in other words Spain is going to save money by, not winning the Eurovison, sounds like an idea, why didn't we think of it?
I mean its not like we are going to be able to afford it thanks to the Olympics this year, so yeah, lets not win.

Spain last won the competition in 1969, when it shared a four-way tie with the UK, the Netherlands and France, so who actually hosted it, Spain? France? The UK?
None of them, it was the Netherlands, what happened to a tie?

Spain also won the contest the year before (1968), 12 years after it started, with singer Massiel's song La La La (very creative song title).

Soler will sing her ballad Quedate Conmigo (Stay With Me) at the final in the Azerbaijan capital Baku on Saturday.
It is written in the contest rules that the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the following year, so in other words, Spain your being told to not win.

"I think it is not the moment, neither for Spain nor for Spanish public, to win Eurovision," Soler was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency, so in other words your going to fail on purpose?

The Spanish government has slashed spending in public television, resulting in the cancellation of several popular programmes, so they are not covering it as much, so there win (loss) will not be shown.

There's no video for this news story, I know it's even more of a let down, but here's the logo for this years Eurovision, Eurovision 2012:

Summary for this week

So the summary for this weeks news stories is Beijing are introducing fly security, Spain have decided not to win the Eurovision song contest this year, and Spain aren't doing too well in the current economic climate.

Interesting News Of The Week - 23/04/2012

Time for a new post I think, lets start with some interesting stories I've found this week shall we?

Confused Driver 'Parks' Car in the Paris metro station

The first news story I've found this week that seems interesting is a European story, this news story has taken place in Paris, France.
Here's a basic summary of what has happened. in my own words.

There was a claimed "confused" driver that managed to trap his car on the steps of a metro station in Paris, after somehow mistaking it for the entrance to an underground car park.

Here's what the "confused" drivers excuse was:

"There's a sign saying 'Haussmann Parking' right in front... I made a mistake"

So what this guy is saying (his name only identified only as Johan) is that he managed to mistake a set of public walking steps for a underground parking ramp, how?

Fortunately this 26-year-old managed to brake in time to stop his car, leaving the back wheels sticking out making sure that no one was hurt, but in doing this he only ended up making himself look a bit like an idiot really.
He managed to also immediately get a crowd of onlookers or new fans that just stood there and watched him as he struggled to get out of his car (great citizenship there, what happened to "Love thy neighbour"?).
They just stood, watched and took pictures of the incident.

After all the commotion the driver was later asked by French police to do an alcohol test, which he managed to pass meaning he wasn't drunk (this still doesn't explain how it happened as his excuse is pretty poor really).

Later a member of staff at a local restaurant was asked about the event that had taken place that day and said that a similar incident took place at the site about five years ago.

So this seems to be something that is just a common mistake to the people of Paris and France, maybe driving a car into metro station steps will soon be a sport the French bring to the Olympic Games, I'm sure they will be very good at it.

Here the BBC's video for the story:

CCTV shows girl falling through pavement in China

Here's the second news story I've found this week that seems interesting, it's a Non-European story, this news story has taken place in Northern China.
Here's what has happened. in my own words.

A teenage girl was walking down the path as you usually would and fell through it right in view of a CCTV camera (a good video for You've Been Framed there).

She was described to have had a "remarkable escape" after the events had taken place.
News crews were told that she has "fell into an underground cavern" which basically to you and me means a hole in the ground (and a bit of a drastic description by he media there if you ask me).

The teenager was seen by a taxi driver that rushed to her aid (along with another woman) and he also helped in the rescue process, making sure the girl got out safe (now there's a good Samaritan).

But once again you can see from the news story's video, she along with our man from the other news story managed to attract a nice crowd that once again stood there and watched as she and the taxi driver struggled, which proves the people of our world really do care for one another and will do whatever we can to help others (yeah right, I don't think so somehow).

Here's a link to the BBC's video for the story:

Summary for this week

So an overall summary this week shows that in the next Olympic games it looks like we will have France introducing the the sport of "Car Park Crashers" and China the new sport of "Floor Fallers".

I'm sure we all can't wait for that to hit our screens.