Wasted Daily News

Malaysian Islamic scholars have called for a halt to popular exhibitions billed as featuring ghosts, genies and other supernatural beings, saying they are forbidden and could undermine the faith of devout Muslims.

Many Malaysians are willing to suspend disbelief when dealing with the supernatural, and the exhibitions capitalise on a widespread fascination with the ghouls and goblins that populate Malaysia’s legends and folklore.

But supernatural beings should not be played up in exhibitions, state news agency Bernama quoted the chairman of Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council as saying. Read the rest of this entry →

When it comes to wacky titles, a book on rogue shopping carts goes straight to the express lane for winners.

“The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification” was named the winner Friday of the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for oddest book title.

The book, written by Buffalo, N.Y.-based artist Julian Montague and published by Harry N. Abrams, offers a mock-scientific taxonomy of the varieties of lost shopping carts, from the simply discarded to the elaborately vandalized. Read the rest of this entry →

The writer of one of Germany’s best known fictional characters, an imp called Pumuckl, is heading to court to battle his illustrator over whether the red-headed mischief maker can marry or should stay chaste.

Writer Ellis Kaut is unhappy that illustrator Barbara von Johnson has given her support to a local TV show’s contest to design a girlfriend for Pumuckl.

The winner will get to visit von Johnson’s Munich villa and take part in a “wedding” staged for the popular fictional character. Read the rest of this entry →

The same rules that make Earth plants green may make non-Earth plants yellow, red or green — but likely not blue, NASA scientists said on Wednesday.

They said their findings — which look at how plants absorb and reflect different types of light — may help narrow the search for life on planets beyond our solar system.

And, as a bonus, they may have answered a basic question about life on Earth. Read the rest of this entry →

China state television has started shooting a 40-part television series about U.S.-born kungfu icon Bruce Lee, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

“The Legend of Bruce Lee,” with a budget of just $6.4 million, started production at the weekend in the southern province of Guangdong. Read the rest of this entry →

A costume worn by actor Christopher Reeve in his first “Superman” film has sold for $115,000 (58,000 pounds) at auction, the same price a “Winkie” costume from the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz” fetched.

The Hollywood memorabilia firm Profiles in History said it had sold more than $2 million worth of movie and television items in a Thursday auction.

The rare Winkie costume was used by an actor portraying a guard protecting the Wicked Witch of the West in the much beloved “Wizard of Oz”. It was within its estimated price range of $100,000 to $120,000, but the Superman costume from the 1978 movie soared past its $50,000 to $70,000 estimated price.

By contrast, the costume worn by actor George Reeves in the 1950s television series “The Adventures of Superman” brought in $129,800 in 2003.

A Batsuit from 1995′s “Batman Forever” brought $63,250 and an alien creature costume from 1979′s “Alien” $126,500.

Relics advertised as being remains of St. Joan of Arc are no such thing and may in fact be parts of an Egyptian mummy, Nature magazine reported on Wednesday.

The magazine quoted French researchers who analysed the relics and found they did not appear to be the burnt remains of anyone from the 15th century, but in fact dated to more than 2,000 years ago.

A vanilla smell suggests natural decomposition, not burning, the magazine quotes Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincare Hospital in Garches, as saying. Read the rest of this entry →