oddly enough

oddly enough

Wyoming teen who built reactor ousted from fair

NEWCASTLE, Wyo.

A Wyoming high-school senior who built a nuclear reactor was disqualified from the International Science and Engineering Fair this month on a technicality.

It seems that 18-year-old Conrad Farnsworth of Newcastle had competed in too many science fairs.

According to the Casper Star-Tribune, the infraction was reported by the former director of the Wyoming State Science Fair, who later did not have her contract renewed. Officials at the University of Wyoming, which sponsors the state event, said after the international fair that the director acted outside her authority.

The newspaper reports Farnsworth is one of only about 15 high-school students in the world to successfully build a nuclear-fusion reactor. Farnsworth says his disqualification was silly.

He graduated this month and plans to attend the South Dakota School of Mines.

Law change kills Germany’s longest word

BERLIN

A tweak to state laws in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to conform with current EU regulations has caused an unexpected casualty: the longest word in the German language.

The Rindfleischetikettierungsueber- wachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz is no more.

The “law delegating beef-label monitoring” was introduced by the state in 1999 as part of measures against mad-cow disease. But the DPA news agency reported Monday the law was removed from the books last week because European Union regulations have changed.

German still has words such as the very robust Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe to fall back on — meaning “widow of a Danube steamboat company captain.”

DPA reports such words have been so rarely used, however, that they’re not in the dictionary. There the longest word honor falls to Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung: automobile liability insurance.

Guards detain cat on illegal mission at Russian prison

MOSCOW

Inmates at Russia’s prisons have been known to bribe guards to obtain cellphones, but this may be the first time they have used a cat as an accomplice.

Guards patrolling a prison colony in Russia’s north saw a cat on the fence, and it seemed to be carrying something. On a closer look, they found a few cellphones and chargers taped to the cat’s belly.

The federal prison service said Monday that this happened last Friday at Penal Colony No. 1 near the city of Syktyvkar, some 600 miles northeast of Moscow.

It wasn’t clear how the cat was supposed to drop off its loot.

Associated Press