At a Nespresso event in Paris, George Clooney revealed he spends the money he earns from starring in the coffee commercials on keeping a satellite over the border of North and South Sudan to keep aneye on Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged with war crimes for leading genocide in Darfur. Clooney's spy programme, the Satellite Sentinel Project, tracks Sudan's army in an attempt to warn civilians before attacks occur. The Sudanese dictator put out a statement saying that "I'm spying on him and how would I like it if a camera was following me everywhere I went," Clooney said. "And I go, 'Well, welcome to my life Mr. War Criminal." (Via Parade)
Roaming smartphone
The $50 note retrieved from the Wellington airport tarmac inspired Murray to write: "I was skiing this year at Whakapapa and stopped at the top of the knoll ridge run to send a text. As I was trying to put my phone back in my pocket I dropped it in the snow and it disappeared down the run. I grabbed my gear and skied after it but could not find it. I decided to go up and try to find it again and as I got to the front of the lift line there was the liftie holding up my phone asking if anyone had lost it.
1. About 30 per cent of all food produced is never eaten. The world produces enough food to feed all its human inhabitants, but the problem is distribution - the food doesn't always get to the people who need it. For example, just one US family of four wastes 751 kilograms of food every year.
2. Wild chickens produce only about 15 eggs a year, but farmers have bred domesticated chickens to lay up to 200 or 300 eggs per annum.
3. Humans use about 40 per cent of the world's ice-free land to grow crops and livestock for food.
4. People in Japan grow watermelons in glass cubes to force them into forming square-shapes. These cubic melons are easier to store in refrigerators and slide into squares, and sell for significantly more than regular watermelons. (Via Live science.com)
Slow news day
A reader writes: "Yes it must've been a slow news day, but what a waste of 'vitamin C rich' fruit."
