Odds & Ends

Risk with cats and rats

Authorities in Atascaderos, Mexico have posted ads in Mexican newspapers asking people to donate their cats to help the town fight a rat infestation. The authorities want to give at least 700 cats to local families to kill off 500,000 rats invading the city. A spokesman for the town’s mayor said officials already attempted using poison and traps but only succeeded in killing all the local cats. Emilia de Leon, a member of Mexico’s Animal Protection Society, voiced concerns about the policy and warned that if the cats were not castrated the rat plague would become a cat plague.

Civic duties

A shortage in funds has a mayor of a Romanian town working out of his car. The town of Libertatea was built without any buildings for city officials. Since neither the new mayor nor the councilors have the money to rent a space, Viorel Crasmaru, the mayor, decided to use his own car as office space. Crasmaru has kept a fairly positive attitude about the ordeal and said using his car as his office means he is always where the people need him. He also said it helps him keep an eye on council finances since the town treasurer uses the passenger’s seat. Crasmaru said he hopes the town can set up a mayoral office in a school before the onset of winter because it would cost too much to heat his car.

Finger painting genius

A 4-year-old girl from Binghampton, N.Y. is making waves in the New York art scene and drawing comparisons to Jackson Pollock and Wassily Kandinsky. Marla Olmstead started painting just before she was 2 years old because her father Mark, an amateur artist, needed something to keep her occupied while he worked. Olmstead uses brushes, spatulas, her fingers and even ketchup bottles to create her work. Anthony Brunelli, a gallery owner, said of 10 pieces about to go on show six were already sold and that the remaining four could fetch between $8-10,000. Olmstead has already sold about 25 paintings, raising $40,000. Brunelli said he has a list of people, some from as far away as Japan, wanting first pick of any of Olmstead’s upcoming work.

Honor Code violation?

An entire school staff in eastern India was fired after officials discovered the workers hadn’t actually worked for 23 years. The 11 employees, including eight teachers, at Rajendra Memorial High School in West Champaran never showed up except twice a year on occasions of national importance. The stay-at-home staff was only discovered after Subhash Sharma, chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board, carried out a snap inspection. The inspection team found three men who claimed to be teachers at the school since February of 1981. The men said the principal resides 20 miles from the school and that they contacted him at the beginning of every month by phone for their salary.

So much for implants

A Japanese man claims he has invented a cell phone ring tone that can help women’s breasts grow. Hideto Tomabechi’s Rockmelon tone registered more than 10,000 downloads in the first week alone. Tomabechi claims his ring tone has sounds that can make the brain and body move subconsciously and likens the subliminal tone to a type of positive brainwashing. One customer reported that her bust size grew from 34 inches to 35 within a week. Tomabechi said he’s planning other ring tones to help people quit smoking, combat baldness and attract a partner.

Freedom Song

Ten Kenyan prisoners broke out of a police cell by singing hymns and chanting prayers to muffle the sound of their escape. The singing prisoners sawed through the iron bars of the cell window before exiting to freedom in Machakos, Kenya. Charles Mathenge, chief of Machakos police, denied the allegations that the prisoners sang during their escape, claiming that some of the guards would have heard something. However, several inmates in neighboring cells reported being woken up by the hymns.