Linseed farmer Durwin Banks is used to dealing with sizeable orders, but a herd of African elephants has become his biggest customer yet.
A consignment of 25 litres (44 pints) of home-pressed oil from the Linseed Farm, near Horsham, West Sussex, has been delivered to Howletts Wild Animal Park as a christening present to celebrate the 13-strong herd’s newest arrival.
Mirembe is the 22nd elephant to be born at the zoo near Canterbury, Kent, weighing 330lb when she joined her mother Tammi, and father Jums, in June. The herd, the largest in the UK, consumes about a litre of linseed oil a day, but Mirembe will have to wait until she is on solid food before she gets a taste, a Howletts spokeswoman said. (PA)
‘I’ll pay fans to watch my new team’
With the cost of watching live football rising every year, one owner of a club is instead offering to pay fans to come through the turnstiles.
Jamie Waltham, 33, the owner and manager of newly-formed non-league Hull United AFC, says he will give £2 to everyone who comes to watch his team play their first home game. He said that many people in the city felt priced out of watching their much bigger rival, Hull City, in the Premier League so he wanted to offer an alternative.
“I’m offering £2 to everyone that comes through the door, but if people come in and spend £4-5 then we could make a bit of money,” Mr Waltham said. “We are doing pints of beer for £2, food at discounted prices and we want it to be as affordable as possible.” (PA)
Helping shoppers find bargains
Radio pop music, football commentary and chatting are the background sounds found to help shoppers make the best buying decisions, according to a study.
All three sounds make shoppers think more rationally about what they are buying, reduce bad choices and help shoppers spot a bargain, the survey to mark eBay’s 15th anniversary found.
Almost 2,000 participants went through a simulated online store for five products and their perceptions of value, quality and emotional responses were measured while listening to various sounds. The study found less than a third of shoppers (30.1%) made a bad purchasing decision while listening to pop, while overall they scored four out of five for decision-making while listening to football commentary. (PA)
Racy writer, 86, shocks daughter
An 86-year-old woman has become a first-time novelist by writing a steamy romance about a bored housewife.
Georgia Gorringe, from Utah, said it took her five years to write the novel No Good-Bye. Ms Gorringe said the story focuses on a woman who listens to talk radio and is turned on by a man’s magical voice.
Her daughter, Bobbie Posey, said she was taken aback by the amount of sex in the book. Ms Gorringe says the story is fiction, but her daughter says much of it is based on her mother’s real-life experiences. (PA)
Mugshot show-off by jailbird
A man who served a 48-hour sentence for drunken driving wore something special for his jail booking photo: a T-shirt featuring his mugshot.
Bobby Burt, 19, of Pittsfield, Maine, had the mugshot from his June arrest printed on the orange shirt, along with the words: “Sponsored by Bud Light and Somerset County Sheriff.” The mugshot is making the rounds online thanks to The Smoking Gun, which posted it. (PA)
Sand portrait over six acres
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC has commissioned a portrait made out of sand and soil that will stretch over six acres (2. 5 hectares) at the National Mall.
Cuban American urban artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada will do the work. The piece is a composite portrait of several people photographed in Washington and is called Out of Many, One, the English translation of the Latin E pluribus unum, which is on the seal of the United States.
The piece will go between the Second World War and Lincoln memorials. Work is expected to start next month.