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McDonald’s Restaurants Becoming Popular Wedding Venues in Hong Kong

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More and more young couples in Hong Kong are turning to McDonald’s fast-food restaurants to fit their shoestring wedding budgets. With prices starting as low as $350 per wedding, the place is pretty much a steal – the deal includes the venue, decorations, audio equipment, food, gifts and invitations. The dream wedding has only one drawback – years later, couples will have to tell their kids that they got married at McDonald’s.</div>
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Surprisingly, not many couples are bothered by this. The demand for McDonald’s weddings is growing in Hong Kong – the wedding party program that was started in three locations in 2011, has now been extended to 15 branches. And, believe it or not, it’s not just about the money, there’s a sentimental value associated with getting hitched at McDonald’s.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6265; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">“We started the program because many customers tell us that McDonald’s is where they first started dating,” a company spokesperson explained. “McDonald’s is where their love stories grew. This connection is exactly why they want to hold their wedding parties and even anniversary parties at McDonald’s – to relive sweet beginnings and bring their romantic story full circle.” Apart from weddings, engagement parties and bridal showers are also often held at these 15 branches.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6265; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">“Our Wedding Party packages have just everything you need, including venue decoration, customized games and special gifts for bride & groom and your guests,” McDonald’s Hong Kong write on their website. “Everything will be taken care of by McDonald’s. All you need to do is be there and enjoy the moment of your lifetime.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6265; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">The wedding program includes four packages to suit every budget – the most expensive one – the ‘Love Forever Party’ – costs HK$9,999 (US$1,290) and the cheapest one – the ‘Happiness Party’ – is HK$2,888 (US$372). The Love Forever package includes a decorated venue rental for two hours, wedding presents, a pair of McDonald’s balloon wedding rings, a bridal bouquet, an apple pie cake display, a Crystal McDonald’s house, an MC, invites, food worth HK $3,000 and seating for 50 guests.</span></div>
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McDonald’s Restaurants Becoming Popular Wedding Venues in Hong Kong

More and more young couples in Hong Kong are turning to McDonald’s fast-food restaurants to fit their shoestring wedding budgets. With pric...

Artist Creates Celebrity Portraits with Thousands of Suspended Buttons

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Artist Augusto Esquivel is an expert at transforming mundane objects into spectacular works of art. One of his specialties is working with standard sewing buttons, which he uses to create stunning, larger-than-life celebrity portraits.</div>
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Augusto’s technique is as tedious as you’d imagine – it’s not an easy arranging thousands of buttons to form an easily recognisable pattern. To create a single portrait, he starts off by suspending hundreds of monofilament strings from the ceiling. Then, he threads black, white and grey buttons into those strings in a particular order.</div>
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Individually, these strings might not amount to much. But this is where Augusto works his magic – when he brings the strings together, pixelated images of popular icons emerge. Some of his most notable works include button portraits of stars like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dali and James Dean.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6265; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">“Like an atom in a molecule, each button serves and shapes the whole,” he explained. “I hold the button to my ear and it whispers to me: ‘I want to be…’”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #5b6265; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">What makes Augusto so special is his ability to spot the creative potential hidden in everyday objects. “I realise how insignificant and small a simple sewing button can be as it lays in my grandmother’s sewing box,” he said. “But at the same time, how unique and precious it can become as a part of a work of art.”</span></div>
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Artist Creates Celebrity Portraits with Thousands of Suspended Buttons

Artist Augusto Esquivel is an expert at transforming mundane objects into spectacular works of art. One of his specialties is working ...

Scientists say sniffing farts could prevent cancer

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto;">Dr. Mark Wood says hydrogen sulfide "could in fact be a healthcare hero with significant implications for future therapies for a variety of diseases."</span><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><br /></span><span class="story_dl" style="font-family: Roboto;">EXETER, England, July 11 (UPI) --</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto;">When people pass gas, most bystanders scatter and hold their breath, but researchers at the University of Exeter in England suggest sticking around and inhaling through the nostrils.</span><br />
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Scientists say savoring the noxious gas hydrogen sulfide -- a byproduct of the body's work breaking down food -- could help stave off the development of cancer.</div>
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"Although hydrogen sulfide gas is well known as a pungent, foul-smelling gas in rotten eggs and flatulence, it is naturally produced in the body and could in fact be a healthcare hero with significant implications for future therapies for a variety of diseases," <span style="color: #006699;">said Dr. Mark Wood</span>, a researcher at Exeter.</div>
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<span style="color: #006699;">In a new study</span>, Wood and his colleagues suggest small doses of hydrogen sulfide can help reverse mitochondrial damage. The mitochondria are the "powerhouse" of the body's cells, driving energy production in blood vessel cells.</div>
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Protecting the mitochondria is a key strategy for preventing stroke, heart failure, diabetes, arthritis and dementia. The health of the mitochondria goes a long way toward determining whether cells live or die, and strong mitochondria help control inflammation.</div>
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In clinical trials, detailed this week in the journal Medicinal Chemistry Communications, manmade hydrogen sulfide helped protect mitochondria under unforgiving biological circumstances.</div>
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"We have exploited this natural process by making a compound, called AP39, which slowly delivers very small amounts of this gas specifically to the mitochondria," explained study author Professor Matt Whiteman -- that way patients won't need to sniff foul odors to get the health benefits of hydrogen sulfide.</div>
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Scientists say sniffing farts could prevent cancer

Dr. Mark Wood says hydrogen sulfide "could in fact be a healthcare hero with significant implications for future therapies for a var...

Pig the dog hops like a frog and is an internet sensation

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<strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: inherit;">IT’S impossible not to stare at Kim Dillenbeck’s dog Pig.</strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Born in Atlanta with severe deformities and adopted by the Alabama woman, the 8-month-old mutt has gangly legs, a body that appears to have been chopped in half and no neck.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Pig looks like one of those fake animals created with Photoshop to draw clicks on websites, yet she’s real.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">“The whole clinic loves her. She comes in and she’s a rock star here,” said Dr Rachael Hudson-Breland, a veterinarian who treats Pig.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The friendly little animal hops like a frog to stand up and walks with a high-shouldered gait that resembles a gorilla. Unable to swing her head side to side, Pig spins her whole body to see what’s beside her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">None of the vets who care for the dog have ever seen another animal with the same condition, said Hudson-Breland, but Dillenbeck has seen a few similar-looking dogs on the internet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Found as a puppy with three littermates in a wooded area in metro Atlanta, Pig is smaller than her surviving siblings at only 7 or so kilograms. Her spine is about 18 centimetres shorter than normal, and wavy — with many bones fused together.</span></div>
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Pig the dog hops like a frog and is an internet sensation

IT’S impossible not to stare at Kim Dillenbeck’s dog Pig. Born in Atlanta with severe deformities and adopted by the Alabama woman, t...

Crocodile attacks keeper during show at Australia zoo

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<b>SYDNEY: A 3.7 metre (12 feet) crocodile on Monday attacked his keeper during a school holiday feeding show at an Australian zoo, dragging him into the water before he managed to break free.</b></div>
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Handler Trent Burton was feeding male croc John when it grabbed him by the hand in front of horrified onlookers at Shoalhaven zoo, 160 kilometres (99 miles) south of Sydney.</div>
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The local Smith Coast Register newspaper said he was rushed to hospital with bites to both hands, although they were not thought to be serious.</div>
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Shaken elderly witness Marlene Orr said it was "the scariest thing I´ve ever seen in my life".</div>
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Another witness Michelle Brady told the newspaper that the trainer was about to feed the crocodile some meat when it took the meal before he should have done.</div>
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"The trainer tried to take it out of the crocodile´s mouth and the croc just grabbed his hand and pulled him to the ground and dragged him into the water," she said.</div>
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"Then the trainer got free and got out of the water."</div>
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Zoo owner Nick Schilko said Burton had been working with crocodiles for more than a decade and fed John daily.</div>
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"It´s an attack and that is serious, but thankfully the injuries aren´t life threatening, which it certainly had the potential to be," he said.</div>
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"We will look at what happened and how it happened and review it."</div>

Crocodile attacks keeper during show at Australia zoo

SYDNEY: A 3.7 metre (12 feet) crocodile on Monday attacked his keeper during a school holiday feeding show at an Australian zoo, draggi...

Missing Mont Blanc mountain climber found after 32 years in ice

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<b>PARIS: Mountain-climbers have made a grisly discovery in the Mont Blanc range of the Alps - the body of a young climber preserved in ice for 32 years.</b></div>
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The body of Patrice Hyvert, who had been training to be a guide, was found last Thursday by two mountain-climbers, local newspaper Dauphine Libere and other media reported.</div>
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Hyvert was last seen alive on March 1, 1982, when aged 23, he took off on a solitary climb up the western side of the "Aiguille Verte" mountain, part of the Mont Blanc massif that straddles the French-Italian border, before bad weather set in in the afternoon.</div>
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Another climber was evacuated from the same mountain two days later, but Hyvert was never found.</div>
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Local police confirmed to newspapers that the frozen body was that of the missing climber, finding his identity card still in his wallet.</div>
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The discovery came as a shock to Hyvert's 82-year-old father, Gerard.</div>
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"I'm a mountain man, and I would have preferred him to stay up there," he told RTL radio. "He was better on a mountain than in a coffin. He was in his element."</div>
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The dangerous terrain, and inclement weather, of the Mont Blanc range results in scores of deaths of mountain climbers each year. The bodies of the missing are often discovered the following year after the ice thaws.</div>
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Missing Mont Blanc mountain climber found after 32 years in ice

PARIS: Mountain-climbers have made a grisly discovery in the Mont Blanc range of the Alps - the body of a young climber preserved in i...

Divers, snorkelers converge for undersea 'concert'

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<b>BIG PINE KEY, Fla: Nearly 500 divers and snorkelers submerged in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on Saturday for a "concert" beneath the sea broadcast by a local radio station.</b></div>
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The 30th annual Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival, held at Looe Key Reef along the continental United States' only living coral barrier reef, featured four hours of commercial-free music piped below the surface via a series of underwater speakers.</div>
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"We started this as an arts and cultural event 30 years ago (and) thought it would be a one-time thing," said event co-founder and coordinator Bill Becker. "It's the only place we know of where music is put underwater for divers, snorkelers and the marine life."</div>
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The water-themed playlist included such tunes as the Beatles' "Octopus's Garden" and the themes from Disney's "The Little Mermaid" and television's classic "Flipper." Participants described the music as clear and ethereal, with underwater visibility of about 50 feet.</div>
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Snorkeler Uli Clef from Munich, Germany, said he was particularly impressed with the vivid colors and tropical fish he saw underwater.</div>
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"I've seen colors from red to blue to white, and even the shades of the sun coming from the water line," Clef said when he surfaced. "All these colorful fishes — that's perfect."</div>
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Some divers were costumed and pretended to play quirky metal instruments sculpted by Florida Keys artist August Powers. As well as offering an unusual experience for dive and snorkel enthusiasts, the broadcast included diver awareness announcements promoting coral reef protection.</div>
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"We try to get divers to be aware of their impact on the coral reef so that they lessen that impact and this reef can be here for generations to come," said Becker.</div>
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The event was staged by radio station WWUS in partnership with the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce.</div>

Divers, snorkelers converge for undersea 'concert'

BIG PINE KEY, Fla: Nearly 500 divers and snorkelers submerged in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on Saturday for a "con...

Napoleon and Josephine's marriage certificate for sale

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<b>PARIS: It was one of the greatest love stories in history and now the marriage certificate that sealed the union of Napoleon and his first wife Josephine is to be sold at auction in September.</b></div>
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The document dated March 8, 1796, was signed by the future Napoleon I and his fiancee Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, or Josephine, the Viscomtesse de Beauharnais.</div>
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The wedding itself took place the next day, and the contract was registered in Paris on March 18.</div>
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Despite history recording their passionate love affair, the document shows that the star-crossed lovers could also be very practical.</div>
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The marriage certificate states that the pair will "in no way be responsible for the debts and mortgages of the other" and that there will be "no common property" between them.</div>
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The document is expected to fetch up to 100,000 euros ($135,000) when it is auctioned on September 21 by Maison Osenat, at a sale in a suburb west of Paris.</div>
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The auction, which will feature a number of other manuscripts and items from the era, will also feature two documents related to Bonaparte´s arrest in 1794. At a previous auction in 2007, a love letter to Josephine written before they were married, sold for more than five times the pre-sale estimate.</div>
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The marriage was annulled in 1810, after the couple failed to have children. (AFP)</div>

Napoleon and Josephine's marriage certificate for sale

PARIS: It was one of the greatest love stories in history and now the marriage certificate that sealed the union of Napoleon and his fi...