Whispers of Probing Mind!

• Cocktail lounge, Norway:
  "LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR."
• At a Budapest zoo:
  "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUITABLE FOOD,
  GIVE IT TO THE GUARD ON DUTY
• Doctors' office, Rome:
  "SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES."
• Dry cleaners, Bangkok:
  "DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS."
• In a Nairobi restaurant:
  "CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER."
• On an Indian river highway:
  "TAKE NOTICE - WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE."
• In a City restaurant:
  "OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS."
• A sign seen on an automatic restroom hand dryer:
  "DO NOT ACTIVATE WITH WET HANDS."
• In a cemetery:
  "PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY, BUT THEIR OWN, GRAVES."
• Tokyo hotel's rules ad regulations:
  "GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIORS IN BED."
• On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
  "OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR."
• In a Tokyo bar:
  "SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS."
• Hotel, Yugoslavia:
  "THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE
  CHAMBERMAID. "
• Hotel, Japan:
  "YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID. "
• In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox
  onastery:
  "YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY."
• A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
  "IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE."
• Hotel, Zurich:
  "BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE."
• Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand:
  "WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?"
• In the window on a Swedish furrier:
  "FUR COATS MADE FOR LADIES FROM THEIR OWN SKIN."
• The box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong:
  "GUARANTEED TO WORK THROUGHOUT ITS USEFUL LIFE."
• In a Swiss mountain inn:
  "SPECIAL TODAY - NO ICE-CREAM."
• Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
  "WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS."
• A laundry in Rome:
  "LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME."

Apr 9, 2007 - ROME - Italy's state TV aired the first episode of a new reality show this week in which the mothers of five single men have to pick out prospective brides from a selection of candidates.

Critics said "Perfect Bride" was both insulting to women and showed Italian TV, already packed with other reality formats such as Big Brother and Celebrity Island, falling to new depths of banality.

In the first episode, the jury of mothers, called only by their first names such as "Mamma Rosa" and "Mamma Ambra", quizzed 18 hopefuls about their suitability as wives.

From next week the mothers will have to live in a Big Brother-style house with their potential daughters-in-law, seeing first hand how they deal with household chores. Viewers will be encouraged to vote off the candidates they dislike.

Mamma Teresa said she was looking for "a simple, intelligent, classy girl" for her son Claudio.

In a country where it is normal for unmarried men to live with their parents into their 30s and "mamma mia!" (my mommy) is a common exclamation, the Italian mother figure is revered by society but often feared by girlfriends and wives.

TV critics said the program exploited the stereotype of the overbearing mamma.

April 3, 2007 - Paris - A French TGV train broke a world speed record on Tuesday as it hurtled down a newly built track at 357 miles per hour (574.8 kilometers per hour) in the country's Champagne region.

The special train called V150, an enhanced version of trains that will run on the Paris-Strasbourg line beginning June 10, has been preparing for the record run for weeks, and it carried journalists and other guests for the official attempt.

From about 236 mph, vibrations in the train became more and more noticeable. At 304 mph, passengers started to get slightly dizzy. At 335 mph, it became difficult to remain standing up despite the stability of the train. 

The absolute speed record for trains was set by a 'maglev' train in Japan, at 361 mph in 2003. However, those trains do not run on rails but glide on a magnetic field.

The previous speed record for a train running on rails was 320.2 mph, set in France in 1990.

The V150 was made up of two normal cars that will run on the eastern TGV track, three double-decker carriages and three sets of motorized wheels. The train can develop over 25,000 horsepower, twice that of a conventional TGV.

The event run was broadcast live on television in France and Germany. The total record operation cost $40 million (30 million euros), shared by the three partners.

High-speed trains in France, as well as rail links to London, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam, are competing with plane travel, and several French regional airlines have gone out of business since the TGV started in 1981.

March 30, 2007 - UNITED NATIONS - Britain took its case to free its 15 sailors and marines held by Iran to the United Nations on Thursday, asking the Security Council to support a statement that would "deplore" Tehran's action and demand their immediate release.

Iranian state television on Thursday also broadcast a few seconds of footage it says was of the operation that seized the 15 British soldiers in Iranian territorial waters.

In the clip, ab out five seconds long, gunshots were heard and a helicopter is shown hovering above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Then, the British seamen and marines appear seated in an Iranian guard boat, presumably after their capture.

The British move came as Iran rolled back on its promise to release the sole female British sailor among the captives, who were seized last week. The Iranian military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, said that because of the "wrong behavior" of the British government, "the release of a female British soldier has been suspended."

Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, also hinted that the British crew members may be put on trial.

The British government said that its sailors and marines were seized Friday after completing a search of a civilian ship near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which forms the border between Iran and Iraq, under a mandate from the Security Council and at the request of Iraq. Iran says the British vessels were inside its territorial waters.

British officials had been angered by Tehran's decision to show the captives on Iranian television. Britain's ambassador to Tehran lodged an official complaint of Iran's decision to show the video.

In the video that was broadcast Wednesday on Iran's Arab-language satellite channel, Turney said her group had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. The segment showed her wearing a black head scarf, sitting in a room before floral curtains and smoking a cigarette.