IF you're stuck in traffic when mother nature calls, Japan's Kaneko Sangyo Company has developed the loo for you. The manufacturer of plastic car accessories has launched its new portable toilet for cars. The toilet comes with a curtain large enough to conceal users and a plastic bag to collect waste. "The commode will come in handy during major disasters such as earthquakes or when you are caught in a traffic jam," a company official said. Drivers stranded by tectonic movements or stuck in tailbacks simply assemble the cardboard toilet bowl, fit a water-absorbent sheet inside and draw round the curtain. The product is small enough to fit inside a suitcase. But prospective customers will have to hang on until November 15, when the firm begins selling the new product online.
Beer can trick barmaid in the dock
AN Australian barmaid has been fined for crushing beer cans between her bare breasts while an off-duty colleague has been fined for hanging spoons from her friend's nipples. Police in Western Australia said the 31-year old barmaid pleaded guilty in the local magistrate's court to twice exposing her breasts to patrons at the Premier Hotel in Pinjarra, south of the state capital, Perth. The woman "is alleged to have crushed beer cans between her breasts during one of the offences", in breach of hotel licensing laws, police from the Peel district of Western Australia said. The barmaid and the hotel manager were both fined $900 (BD340), while an off-duty barmaid was charged for helping to hang spoons from the woman's nipples, police said. "It sends a clear message to all licensees in Peel that we will not tolerate this type of behaviour in our licensed premises," local police superintendent David Parkinson said.
Ethical lessons for police
A Brussels police chief has warned his officers to abstain from visiting "brothels" and drinking alcohol during working hours, Belgium's La Derniere-Heure newspaper reported. The article about the warning, made in response to "baseless rumours" about the conduct of certain officers in the suburb of Saint-Josse, has caused "a lot of commotion," a police spokesman said. In an office note reprinted by La Derniere-Heure, police chief Erwin Renard reminded staff of "certain ethical rules" that had apparently been ignored while he was on sick leave. He wrote: "These staff think that working hours are for drinking alcohol when no other drinks are available, playing sport, frequenting 'brothels' or other massage parlours, developing intimate relationships with residents of their neighbourhood or during their patrols."
Motorway shortcut on a wheelchair!
AN 81-year-old German woman driving to a cemetery in her electric wheelchair decided to take a shortcut and drove the wrong way down a motorway. The wheelchair had been travelling at 6kph. Vehicles on German motorways must clock at least 60kph and there is no upper speed limit on some sections. Motorists spotted the woman and notified authorities, who escorted her to safety. "She told us she got lost and wanted to avoid taking a longer route," police in the southern city of Nuremberg said.
Fibbing smokers beware!
A simple device for detecting carbon monoxide in the blood may help doctors get an honest answer out of patients who smoke. The device, called a pulse cooximeter, is typically used to test for carbon monoxide levels in firemen, but it can also detect carbon monoxide levels in people who smoke, offering a powerful tool for educating patients about the effects of smoking. Dr Sridhar Reddy, a lung specialist in St Clair, Michigan, US, presented the study at a scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Chicago, along with his 16-year-old son Ashray. "There is no good way to screen people for smoking," said Dr Reddy. "You can ask them directly whether they smoke. But once they say they don't smoke and they lie about it, they will never volunteer that information," Dr Reddy said. Current tests involve breath, blood or saliva samples, but the pulse cooximeter simply involves placing a clip-like device on a finger tip.
'Viagra court' has a new name
The Dutch town of Breda has decided to rename a new street that was to have been called St Fiacrius court after people started calling it Viagra court.
The town council changed the street's name to "Hofhage" after people about to move into a planned housing development there complained about the negative associations of living in a street with a name that sounds like the popular impotence drug.
