Stumped for an original name for their newborn daughter, an Israeli couple took inspiration from social networking site Facebook and named her “Like”, the Israeli daily Maariv reported yesterday.
The parents lifted the name from the popular feature on the site, which allows Facebook users to click on the word “like” and give the thumbs-up to comments, links and pictures posted by other users.
“We named her Like because it’s modern and innovative,” father Lior told the mass-circulation paper. “I checked that the name does not exist elsewhere in the country – that was the main condition for me,” he said.
Lior and his wife Vardit have in the past strayed into unusual territory in naming their offspring. The pair share a love of cooking and so decided to name their other daughters Pie, using the English word for the name, and Vash, Hebrew for honey. (AFP)
Hootel staff
Guests at a hotel are being greeted by two unusual new receptionists.
Baby owls Luna and Manuel are the latest addition to the staff at Bovey Castle in Devon, UK.
The four-week-old owls, looked after by falconer Martin Whitely, greet guests checking in and out, and entertain children staying at the country estate in Dartmoor National Park. They have replaced Guinevere, a white-faced Scops owl who used to live at the hotel. (PA)
Beer penalty
A police officer in Tennessee, USA is challenging his sacking after beer confiscated from minors was given to a fellow officer.
Corporal Tim Horne and other officers confiscated three cases of beer at a party where there was under-age drinking.
Later the beer was given to another officer and Corporal Horne approved a report stating it had been destroyed, a hearing was told.
The officer who received the beer resigned. Corporal Horne said his sacking is an over-reaction. (PA)
Capitalist styles
Cosmetic surgery, skinny jeans and hoop earrings are in fashion in North Korea, as the pursuit of female beauty remains unaffected by the communist state’s chronic food shortages.
Daily NK, a North Korea-specific internet newspaper, quoted sources in the North saying that, although facelifts are illegal, state surgeons are performing cosmetic surgeries in secret in return for bribes. Doctors receive 2,000-3,000 North Korean won ($14-21) for an upper eyelid surgery, which can remove excess fatty deposits that appear as puffiness, it said.
“Upper eyelid surgeries and cosmetic tattoos on eyebrows, lips and the corners of eyes are widespread in North Korea,” a source from Pyongyang was quoted as saying.
“Many women want plastic surgery regardless of deprivation and food shortages,” the source added. (AFP)
Heaven and hell
South Africans need not fear hell’s fiery chambers if they do not vote for the ruling party in local polls tomorrow as threatened by President Jacob Zuma, a senior church leader said yesterday.
“People won’t go to hell,” Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, told a press conference on election monitoring, adding that people have to exercise their right to vote and choose whichever party they want to vote for.”
Mr Zuma claimed his party’s higher influences when he said a vote that did not go to the African National Congress (ANC) was a ballot for the devil.
“When you vote for the ANC, you are also choosing to go to heaven,” Mr Zuma was quoted by The Times as saying. (AFP)
No show
A New Zealand man who tried to escape from police by clambering naked into the ceiling of an Auckland hospital sparked a seven-hour manhunt before he was recaptured.
The 25-year-old was arrested early yesterday for driving offences and taken to hospital to receive treatment for an ankle injury, but fled into the building’s labyrinthine ceiling space while taking a shower.
The hospital’s emergency ward was evacuated as a search for the man found only his discarded gown, with police eventually being forced to call the fire brigade and specialist search teams with thermal imaging equipment.
He was eventually found in a ceiling space not far from where he originally disappeared and was charged with escaping police custody. (AFP)
Heroic passenger
Quick action by the head of a Canadian choir touring Sweden narrowly averted an accident when the driver of their tour bus suffered a heart attack at full speed, Swedish media reported yesterday.
About five minutes into the University of Manitoba choir’s journey from Stockholm’s Arlanda airport towards the town of Sundsvall, the bus starting swerving uncontrollably on the highway.
At that point, choir leader Elroy Friesen noticed the driver had fallen over the wheel. “I threw myself forward and put the gear stick in what I thought was neutral. Then I hit the brakes,” he said.
Exoplanet
A planet 20 light years away is the first outside the Solar System to be officially declared habitable by scientists.
The “exoplanet” Gliese 581d has conditions that could support Earth-like life, including possible watery oceans and rainfall.
Yet any future space voyagers landing there would find themselves in truly alien surroundings. The sky is likely to be murky red, not blue, gravity is twice that of Earth, doubling the weight of anyone standing on the surface, and the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere would almost certainly not be breathable by humans. (PA)