Romance may happen every day, but finding true love in London is as rare as aliens in the galaxy, says one London-based economist.
Peter Backus, a teaching fellow of economics at the University of Warwick, has calculated that he has a 0.00034 per cent chance of finding love in the capital using the same "Drake" equation scientists use to determine the potential number of extra-terrestrials in our galaxy.
American astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake devised his namesake equation in the early 1960s.
The 31-year-old Dr Backus - who lives on a narrow boat in central London - is not even that particular about his ideal match, requiring only that she be a London-based female, aged 24-34, with a university education.
Further reducing his chances, he has estimated he would be physically attracted to just five per cent of the women meeting all these criteria.
But a relationship takes two. If this economist's dream women are equally as fussy as he is, his chances of finding someone who will return his affections plummets to just 0.00034 per cent, he said.
But love can still defy the odds right on your doorstep. Since writing his paper on the equations of finding love, Dr Backus has started dating his neighbour Rose. She meets his age requirement, has a university degree and also lives on a boat. (Reuters)
Little lizards make big money
A tiny Indonesian lizard has become big business for impoverished villagers in Indonesia, where growing Asian demand for reptile-based traditional medicines has driven a boom in gecko farming.
Geckos - the pale, soft-skinned lizard with a distinctive call - are abundant in Indonesia and are believed by Chinese and Korean traditional medicine devotees to help cure cancer as well as skin and respiratory diseases.
In rural Banjarsawah village, on the eastern half of Java island, struggling farmers have discovered geckos make a surprisingly lucrative commodity.
Tohasyim, 32, a farmhand who earns 10,000 rupiah (about €1) a day feeding other people's cattle, now makes 1 million rupiah or about €110 a month hunting geckos in a local forest. (Reuters)
Solar-powered Bibles to Haiti
As international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a US faith-based group is sending Bibles to Haitians in their hour of need.
Not any Bible. These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the Holy Scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.
Called the Proclaimer, the audio Bible delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people," the Faith Comes By Hearing group said. It added 600 of the devices were already on their way to Haiti. (Reuters)
No takers for lottery prize
Check your pockets and cupboards, officials urged Israelis yesterday after waiting three weeks for someone to step up and claim about €14 million, the Jewish state's largest-ever lottery prize. There was one winning ticket for the December 26 lottery, with a first prize of 76 million shekels (€14.3 million), but so far no one has come forward, Oved Hazan of Israel's state-run lottery told Channel 10 television news.
"The message we want to get out is: people, check your tickets," Mr Hazan said. "They probably don't know that they have won, it's a person who just knows they have not checked their ticket," said Mr Hazan holding up a large version of the 76 million-shekel cheque.
The winner of this prize has another five months to claim the millions before they revert to the state's coffers, Mr Hazan said. (AFP)
Sculptor cuts tiger down to size
A Taiwanese man has tamed the tiger, shrinking the Chinese zodiac animal into a sculpture smaller than a grain of rice that's fully visible only through a magnifying glass.
Chen Forng-shean, who has been sculpting as a hobby for some 30 years, carved from resin what he calls the world's tiniest tiger at one millimetre high and just over a millimetre long ahead of the Chinese lunar Year of the Tiger which starts on February 14.
But Mr Chen said the brightly coloured beast nearly got the best of him over 10 attempts to create it.
"If the hands shake a little bit, the work would jump away and disappear," said Mr Chen, 54, a minting plate designer by trade. "For this tiger, the toughest part is because it is three-dimensional. It can be looked at from any angle and still seem very lively.
"Colouring is also very hard, with the patterns on his back and the red colour on his tongue," he said. (Reuters)
Taiwan MPs brawl in Parliament
More than 70 lawmakers brawled in Taiwan's Parliament on Monday, the first melee in the island nation's notoriously rambunctious seat of government since the ruling Nationalist Party swept to power two years ago.
Members of the anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wrestled and yanked the clothes of ruling Nationalist (KMT) MPs after commandeering the speaker's podium to block a law allowing local officials to be appointed instead of elected.
Three KMT legislators said they were hurt in the melee.
Taiwan legislators, once famous for brawls that had involved spraying water and throwing microphones, swore off fighting in January 2008, when the KMT expanded its majority and the overall number of MPs declined by a half.
Brawls in Parliament are seen as one way for the opposition to show voters that it stands tough on issues.
"A violent conflict erupted in the process after the DPP had exhausted other means to stop the law," the party said in a statement. The law passed after the brawl. (Reuters)