Around the Globe, Yale Index and Photo Blurb

Around the Globe

The streets in the British city of Cardiff are gold mines--almost literally. Geologist Hazel Pritchard of Cardiff University has found that seemingly worthless roadside dust contains nearly half the concentration of platinum that would justify commercial mining.

Pritchard believes the high concentration of platinum is linked to the catalytic converters in cars, which each contain about an ounce of the metal. She explained that Cardiff could profit from its precious dust. "It may be possible to recycle the platinum in our cities, especially as platinum has only been collecting on our roads for a few years and the values are already high."

Lucky charms

While most soccer fans around the world gripped a rabbit's foot or crossed their fingers to give their teams extra luck at the World Cup this summer, officials of the South African Football Association did something slightly different. They participated in a bloody chicken sacrifice called "muti." The ritual entailed slaughtering chickens the night before the game and smearing their blood and other substances on the opposition's goalposts.

The results: the team lost to France and Germany, drew against the Czech Republic, and suffered embarrassing defeats to the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. What a waste of chicken.

India vs. MTV

Forget about tensions with Pakistan. The Indian government is in negotiations with another formidable foe: MTV. After meetings with the Indian Union Home Minister, MTV officials decided to drop its tricolor logo, which contained the colors of the Indian flag--white, orange, and green.

In a statement, MTV said: "It has been determined that MTV India has not violated any law with regard to the Indian national flag and at no point of time meant any disrespect to the Indian flag. However, since the company has been told that the colors of the logo have offended a few, in the spirit of cooperation and goodwill, MTV will change its logo shortly."

—Compiled by Sheela V. Pai from The Daily Telegraph, The South African Times, and The Hindu.

YALE INDEX
1. Number of video stores within walking distance of campus, Jan. 1998	0
2. Number of video stores within walking distance of campus, Sept. 1998	3
3. Number of free cable TV channels on campus, Sept. 1998	66
4. Number of free cable TV channels on campus, Oct. 1998	38
5. Price per movie at Yale Medical School Film Society, member rate, in cents	26
6. Price per movie at Yale Film Society, member rate, in cents	59
7. Price per movie rental at Best Video, in cents	300
8. Length of Clinton testimony, in minutes	243
9. Approximate number of Clinton scandal papers in pages	1955
10. Number of pages of reading assinged in Prof. John Gaddis's Cold War class this week	336
11. Time it would take a Cold War student to read the Clinton papers as an assignment, in weeks	5.82
12. Time it would take said student to read Clinton papers for entertainment, in weeks	1

—Compiled by Anne Kinderman and Sharon Lin

Sources: 1, 2, 10,11,12) SLAK Almanac; 3,4) Comcast; 5) YMSFS; 6) YFS; 7) Best Video; 8, 9) CNN

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH DANCIN' FOOLS: Upperclass singing group members got a chance to perfect their calisthenics in one of many wild and wacky rituals at the beginning of Tap Night, Wed., Sept. 23.

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