Power company tells customer she is dead (Reuters)

Reuters - An Austrian woman has had to convince her electricity supplier that she is alive after the company wrote to her asking for information about her contract following her "passing away."---...More

Two's company for "ghost train"

BEIJING (Reuters) – Millions of Chinese cram trains to get to their home provinces for the Lunar New Year break, with tickets selling out fast, so it came as a surprise to two holidaymakers who found they were the only passengers.

The Chinese New Year break, or Spring Festival, is the biggest of two "Golden Week" holidays which give migrant workers their only chance of the year to return home with gifts for their families.

Standing-room if you are lucky only is the norm for many on journeys that can last days across the huge country, but these two had the whole train to themselves.

"There was no one and there was not enough heating or light," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted a passenger surnamed Zhang as saying. "When the train went through a tunnel, it was pitch black. It was like a ghost train."

It turned out that train L342, bound for Beijing from freezing Shanxi province last Wednesday, had been laid on as a "temporary" train to ease the crush, with no standard tickets or departure time, the newspaper said.

Only the two men had climbed aboard and the driver, for reasons known only to himself, had set off for Beijing.

"I could not get a standing-room-only ticket for the regular trains, how could there be no passengers on a temporary train?" an incredulous Zhang was quoted as saying.

The paper quoted a staff member at the station as saying the most probable explanation was that their station had not been allocated tickets.

China's Xinhua news agency said police had seized more than 6,600 train ticket scalpers during the train scramble over the holiday.

Police retrieved more than 40,000 scalped tickets, with a total face value of about $730,000.
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Stupid News---Non-stick chewing gum firm raises $20 million

Stupid News---Non-stick chewing gum firm raises $20 million

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A British company developing a non-stick chewing gum that can be easily removed from pavements and shoes has raised 10 million pounds ($20 million) to help bring its product to market.

The new financing comes from institutional and private investors, with IP Group -- an early backer -- chipping in an additional 800,000 pounds, the firm said on Wednesday.

Revolymer's new Clean Gum is the result of polymer research at the University of Bristol, where the company was created as a research spin-out in 2005.

Today's chewing gums are made from synthetic latex, which is resistant to the weather and is strongly adhesive. Clean Gum adds a special polymer to modify its properties, making it far less sticky.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Quentin Bryar)