Oddities and Humor

A boy of 11 called a German police emergency line to complain of "forced labour" after his mother told him to help clean the home.

Police say the boy from Aachen, who has not been identified, spoke to an officer via the 110 number.

They say he complained: "I have to work all day long. I haven't any free time."

His mother told the officer the boy had kept threatening to call them, having repeatedly complained of having to do housework during the school holidays.

A transcript of the conversation, printed in local newspapers, revealed the officer asking the boy to describe the kind of "forced labour" he was doing.

The boy replied that he had to clean the home and terrace, it said.

Asked if he knew what forced labour was, the boy said he did, and the police officer asked to speak to his mother, who at that stage was standing next to him.

She explained he had called after being asked to pick up paper from the floor, adding: "He plays all day long and when told to tidy up what he's done, he calls it forced labour."

As a child, I, too, performed "forced labor." I had to wash dishes and pull weeds in the garden.

No one made me do anything, edgar. I don't know which is worse.

Athol man gets a year in jail after theft of $12 from Jimmy Fund can
Hayes stole the collection can from the lobby of the Athol police station....

Athol man gets a year in jail after theft of $12 from Jimmy Fund can

Study: Animals are moving north about 15 feet (5 metres) a day to try to escape global warming


WASHINGTON - Animals across the world are fleeing global warming by heading north much faster than they were less than a decade ago, a new study says.
About 2,000 species examined are moving away from the equator at an average rate of more than 15 feet (5 metres) per day, about a mile per year, according to new research published Thursday in the journal Science which analyzed previous studies. Species are also moving up mountains to escape the heat, but more slowly, averaging about 4 feet a year.
The species — mostly from the Northern Hemisphere and including plants — moved in fits and starts, but over several decades it averages to about 8 inches (20 centimetres) an hour away from the equator.
"The speed is an important issue," said study main author Chris Thomas of the University of York. "It is faster than we thought."
Included in the analysis was a 2003 study that found species moving north at a rate of just more than a third of a mile (500 metres) per year and up at a rate of 2 feet (0.61 metres) a year. Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas, who conducted that study, said the new research makes sense because her data ended around the late 1990s and the 2000s were far hotter.

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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/study-animals-moving-north-15-feet-5-metres-184106594.html