Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SMART CHANGING ROOM GIVES ADVICE For those with no fashion sense, a British company claims it's invented a "smart" changing room that advises shoppers on what suits them. Advertisement "The system could advise on dress sense and what clothes suit the kind of body you have and what clothes don't flatter you," says Douglas Millard, spokesman for QinetiQ, a defense research firm that designed the changing room. About six cameras scan the shopper and the new outfit, feeding the data to a computer with software that can match styles to body shapes, the London Telegraph reports. ANOTHER BLACKOUT SURPRISE New Yorkers trying to escape the heat and the aftermath of the blackout cannot seek relief at city beaches. Most city beaches remained closed because of millions of gallons of raw sewage that poured into the water during the blackout. Two sewage treatment plants in Manhattan malfunctioned during the power outage, spilling an estimated 120 million gallons of raw sewage into waters around the city, the New York Post reports. The beaches will remain closed until the city Health Department verifies bacterial levels are safe. MANY OLD CONTRACEPTIVES USELESS Advertisement Some of the more than 600 condoms, sponges, cervical caps and other devices on display at Toronto's History of Contraception Museum were completely ineffective. Others were simply dangerous or lethal, such as the drinking of lead and mercury by Chinese women thousands of years ago, which often led to sterility or death, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports. The museum, located in the Canadian headquarters of birth control pill manufacturer Janssen-Ortho, contains no brand name products, except for a few decades-old condom packages, including one labeled "Anti-baby condom." The collection, gathered by former president of Ortho Pharmaceutical and present curator Percy Skuy, includes condoms made of sheep's intestine, a 14-carat gold intracervical device and some 350 intrauterine devices. WORLD'S LARGEST SEED PLANTED Experts at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland, are celebrating after successfully germinating the world's largest seed. The Coco de Mer, which is produced by a palm tree found in the Seychelles, is as heavy as eight bags of sugar and notoriously difficult to cultivate, the BBC reports. The seed is the size of a small watermelon. The horticulturists received the gift from the Victoria Botanic garden in the Seychelles in April. Advertisement If all goes well the new plant should put out its first leaf within a year, and it could produce fruit in 30 years.
