German prostitutes are signing up for a career change, training to become nurses to tend to the country's aging population or working phones as telemarketers.
Thirty prostitutes have enlisted in a church-funded project in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia and more are on a waiting list, project coordinator Gisela Zohren said.
Competition in prostitution is fierce and the days when one could make a decent living out of it are long gone, especially once you hit the 30's,\ Zohren said.
""After years of prostitution, they know how to listen, look after people and are savvy in selling over the phone,"" she said.
Experts in the care industry for the aged also welcomed the initiative.
""We have more and more old and fewer and fewer young people, so there is a strong demand for people working in care professions,"" said Franz Wagner, head of the German association of care professions.
—ReutersButte, Mont., has long been unhappy with the presence of the Berkeley Pit, a huge, putrid, toxic lake filled by runoff from arsenic, copper, cadmium, cobalt, iron and zinc mines. Last year, however, the town began to figure out that tourists would actually pay to see the 500-acre, 900-foot-deep, foul, wretched mess. Attendance was so good that the admission price was recently increased.
—Seattle Post-IntelligencerPolice were investigating the Hell's Angels chapter in Stockholm, Sweden, after 70 members claimed government benefits for being ""depressed."" Police said the gang had largely abandoned its reliance on shootouts and bomb attacks and moved into crimes like tax fraud.
—Reuters Weekly Darwin Award
This week's winner: 24-year-old Philip couldn't wait to fire up his new Lava Lamp, and decided to accelerate the process for the pretty globs to begin their surreal dance. He took the lamp to the kitchen, placed it on the stove, and turned up the heat. In short order, the wax melted and began its sinuous dance.
But the liquid was designed to be warmed by a 40-watt bulb, and Philip forgot that ""heat expands."" Whereas there was no room for expansion in the glass bottle, the Lava Lamp resorted to a violent explosion to relieve the pressure. One thick shard of glass blew straight through Philips' chest and into his heart.
—Darwinawards.com™
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