In a bid to save children from frosting and fun, a New Zealand school has banned bringing birthday cake to school. Principal Megan Bowden says, "Oteha Valley has a large number of pupils born in September and October, and there can be up to four cakes a week in some classes. It had gotten to the point where parents thought they were required to provide a cake for their child's birthday." She adds that since they have defeated cake so easily, the school board plans on tackling the mirth problem next and god willing, smiles by the end of the year.

In a blatant attempt to become the next Iron Chef UK, a Kent man has vowed to eat nothing but wild food he can forage, including road kill, for a year. Fergus Drennan will gather his food within a 10 mile radius of his home. Starters on his menu include such things as mushrooms, berries, nuts and acorn coffee. Dead squirrels, foxes, badgers and rabbits he comes across make up his main courses and he plans on using their skins for clothing. Lets hope he's purchased a lot of Altoids.

Will Foster, a Kettering University student, has built his own half sized Panzer tank. It took Will 2 years and around $10,000 to build his mini-tank and he says the process has been "a lot of trial and error...I'd buy a $200 part that didn't work, then go to a $300 part that didn't work before finding a $50 part that did." The tank is about as big as a small car, and can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. It runs on treads, has a cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank and parks wherever the hell it wants.

GnomeIllusionist writes "In their continuing tribute to Gary Gygax, Wired has created character sheets for nine celebrities. Apparently, Stephen Hawking can do 10D6 radiation damage to his enemies and Rick Astley is a 20th-Level bard. Steve Jobs' black turtleneck is actually magical armor with +6 against edged attacks." Most of them are kinda cheesy and obvious- I wonder if you can do better.

It's early evening. You've just finished a large double cheese, pepperoni and sausage pizza and washed it down with a 2 liter of Mountain Dew. The tingling in your arm a reminder that it will take much more than an astounding 10,000 calorie dump to defeat your body and fuel it through the next 5 hours of Warcraft raiding. Too full of sauce, spiced meats and sugar to move, you manage to turn your head and look at the meager half bag of Doritos, in your clogged heart of hearts you know that this is not enough. You need more. You need donuts. How are you going to find them? Call someone? Don't be ridiculous you haven't talked to a real person in months. Search for donuts on Google? Do you have any idea how many hits you'd get? (actually you do, it's around 13,300,000.) Tired, frustrated and not completely stuffed you let the dream of donuts slip through your greasy fingers once again. We've all been there but now there is a solution. Someone has finally made a Krispy Kreme finder with a clock that determines if the store is open. Simply type in your zip code, rub on some sun block to protect your pale skin, put on pants and follow the directions.

A lucky group of 20 teenagers will be taking a 3 day tour of Amsterdam with stops in the red light district and a cannabis college. I'm sure this happens all the time. What makes this trip different is that it has been organized by the Essex County Council's youth service to help children discover how the Dutch tackle drugs, alcohol and sexual health issues. That's right, it's a field trip. I know the candy factory I toured in 5th grade would have been much better if we went to the cannabis college first.

How do you know that you live in a dangerous place? One sign might be that your country is holding a Miss Landmine pageant. The contestants come from Angola's various provinces and are between 19 and 33. Each woman has a profile that lists not only their ages and favorite colors but also when they were injured and what kind of mine claimed their limbs. All the contestants get help to go back to school or to start a small business and best of all the winner gets a new prosthetic limb. Nike, who is sponsoring the event, says that the pageant proves people with disabilities can still be beautiful and that they would be happy to sponsor next year as well since it only cost half as much as usual.

alphadogg writes "Every day is something like April Fools' Day at the University of California, Berkeley joke recommendation site, dubbed Jester. Now on Version 4.0, the site tosses visitors a handful of jokes to rate on a scale of "less funny" to "more funny." It then recommends jokes based on the user's taste (or lack thereof), dynamically making recommendations based on the user's most recent ratings. Jester's more than a joke jukebox though. Underlying it is a Berkeley-patented "collaborative filtering algorithm" dubbed Eigentaste , now on Version 5.0. The more people who use the system and rate jokes, the more data Berkeley researchers have to advance their understanding of recommendation systems, like those used by Amazon.com and other Web sites."

praps writes "Last summer a 75-year-old woman from central Sweden became the envy of the IT world with her scorching 40Gbps internet connection. 1,500 simultaneous HDTV channels or a whole high definition DVD downloaded in two seconds were hers for the taking. Now Sigbritt Löthberg could soon be treated to an incredible 100 Gbps link — but it may not be put to great use. According to the head of the ultra-fast fiber connection project, Sigbritt mostly used the gear 'to dry her laundry.'"

Celestis Inc., has pioneered the sending of cremated remains into suborbital space on rockets and now it wants to start a service that would send your ashes to the surface of the moon. The new service starts at $10,000 for a small amount of ashes from one person and could begin as early as next year. The Company currently offers a service that will spread your ashes on the sound stage where the original moon landing was shot for $100.

A barber in Grand Rapids Michigan who had been forced to stop offering beer after authorities told him he was breaking the law, hopes to convince lawmakers to change their minds. He feels that a beer with your haircut is simply old-fashioned service. When will the Nanny State learn that nothing goes as well with a foamy mug of beer as straight razors, scissors and loose hair.

A Craigslist hoax has left Robert Salisbury with an empty house and a lot of anger. The Craigslist ad said the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free. After receiving a call from a woman who was about to take his horse, Robert returned home to find close to 30 people armed with printouts of the ad, rummaging through his barn and front porch. "They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true, it boggles the mind", Salisbury said. Although many of his things have been returned already, Robert is selling plans for a water engine online to help recoup some of what he is out.

Safe crackers, guns, and con men are a thing of the past. The new trend in crime appears to be hypnotism. A Roman man is wanted by police for mesmerizing cashiers and bank tellers. A teller says the man walked up to her and said, "Look deeply into my eyes. Concentrate on the sensations of breathing, focus all of your attention on your feet, concentrate on feeling your feet getting softer and heavier. Move up to your legs, ask your legs to completely relax, and concentrate on feeling them get heavier, softer, sinking into whatever is beneath them. Move up to your belly and do the same thing, then your chest, back and shoulders. Now send $10 to the PayPal account of Samzenpus. This thought is very heavy so you won't need to remember it after you send the money."

For some people marriage is the surest and most lasting foundation of comfort and love, for others it's a life sentence.

If you can't figure out what to do with the extra $200M you have laying around, Monaco based Wally Yachts has the boat for you. Some of the features of your new 'gigayacht' include: A growing area with shrubbery and flower beds, watered by an irrigation system, an aft deck that holds two 45ft motor boats, two 27ft sailing boats, two cars and six jetskis. Best of all is the environmentally friendly 750,000 liter fuel tank that allows your vessel five years of cruising without having to stop for a fill-up. The price of gas goes up $1 a gallon wherever this thing goes.

It's amazing how uptight some people get after they have kids.

Japan has created a new government position to promote animation and appointed a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon, their new "anime ambassador". The time traveling robot cat ambassador who loves to help his friends is a stark contrast to the more irritable and incomprehensible U.S. cartoon ambassador, Ookla the Mok.

Instead of egg babies and marriage projects, health class should be this video.

Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh used a $65 Bosch drill to perform an emergency operation on a Ukrainian woman's head while traveling through her country. They had trouble finding an anesthetist so the woman was just given a local anesthetic and was conscious during the procedure. The BBC will air a show about the rather remarkable surgical procedure on March 30 and people in the US can read all about it in Time-Life Books Complete Home Improvement and Brain Surgery Manual.

During the Civil War the city of Tampa needed ammunition and other supplies but didn't have enough cash. They issued a promissory note for $299.58 to storekeeper Thomas Pugh Kennedy. 147 years later his great-granddaughter says the city never made good on its loan. Now, Joan Kennedy Biddle and her family are suing to collect the payment plus interest. The amount they want is $22.7 million. This shows why you should never just make your minimum payment.