Booky, that "data transfer" that took 127 minutes is the transfer BY PIGEON, made up of flight time plus time to get the data off the chip the pigeon transported.

That can be topped. I bought a book about guns through the ages, and one was a lot like this one, only the trigger was also a corkscrew.

marcusbacus: 'People (soldiers) were paid in salt, and the word “salarium” comes from that.'

And just to spell it out: That is the root word the modern English "salary" is based on.

Given that they reach sexual maturity at age 7-9, it's not really suprising that they develop faster...

Why do you only mention women? Does that only happen to actresses, not actors?

If it's not allowed to cancel your trash pickups, why was he able to do that? The way this is explained, it sounds like the city is making up chicanery as they go.

Just in case anyone wonders about the map: that's Rhineland-Palatinate, a one of the Bundesländer that make up the country... Federal Republic, and all that. ;)

Why Africa? Supposedly because it's warm there.

I think the BBC got the ages wrong; the version that was on the radio news here named the five year old girl as witness (and I'd believe German radio over the BBC because it happened in Germany).

Also matches up witht he version of Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE50444120090105