Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Cabbage stalks prompt garbage penalty NORWICH, England, May 18 (UPI) -- Officials in Norwich, England, have tagged a man as a repeat recycling offender for placing cabbage stalks in his garbage, the 73-year-old says. Advertisement Barry Freezer said after he placed the stalks of his homegrown cabbage into his garden waste bin, trash officials refused to empty the refuse container and he was cited as a problematic recycler under current regulations, The Daily Mail said Sunday. Current recycling regulations state that any garden waste cannot be mixed with any kitchen waste which could have come into contact with meat. Freezer maintains the fact his cabbage his homegrown should be proof enough that the stalks never made it into the kitchen. "When did you last buy a cabbage with a stalk at a supermarket? It should be obvious that this was garden waste that never came into contact with the kitchen," he said. Advertisement Freezer told the Mail that local authorities had not responded to his letter regarding the situation, which he says has become commonplace. "The system is ridiculously complicated. People like me will be making 'mistakes' all the time. I could burn my garden waste but it's not good for the environment," Freezer said. Gecko makes surprise appearance in egg DARWIN, Australia, May 18 (UPI) -- An investigation is planned to determine how a gecko got inside a chicken egg, Australian scientists say. Dr. Peter Beaumont -- president of the Australian Medical Association in the Northern Territory -- said he was cracking chicken eggs for a meal when he found the dead lizard in an otherwise unblemished egg, The Daily Telegraph said Saturday. "I was cracking the eggs into a pan when I noticed one of them was all cloudy. I looked at the shell and saw a tiny gecko," he said. Beaumont said the animal's carcass was lodged between the egg's membrane and the shell's interior, indicating the gecko had not entered the egg after it was cracked. He speculated the animal might have tried to feed on a chicken embryo by climbing into a live chicken, only to become trapped in a developing egg. Advertisement School yearbook gets unwanted makeover MCKINNEY, Texas, May 18 (UPI) -- A miscommunication resulted in blurred or altered yearbook pictures for some Texas high school students, but the company says it will reprint the books. Lifetouch National School Studios Inc. officials said its workers misunderstood a request by McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas, The Dallas Morning News said Saturday. Lifetouch spokeswoman Sara Thurin Rollin said school officials initially asked that students' head sizes be approximately the same in all yearbook photos and that their eyes remain at a base level. Lifetouch workers took that request too literally and altered several photographs by mismatching students' heads and bodies to meet the guidelines, Rollin said. "Unfortunately, we misinterpreted what those guidelines were," she told the Morning News. When the yearbooks came back from the printer, they featured male students with the heads of females, the newspaper said. The reprint will cost the company $85,000. Cartoon cat to be ambassador for Japan TOKYO, May 18 (UPI) -- Japan will soon have its first-ever cartoon goodwill tourism ambassador with Hello Kitty chosen to represent the country in China, officials said. Hello Kitty will be part of the Japanese government's "Visit Japan Campaign," which is aimed at attracting 10 million overseas visitors every year by 2010, Kyodo reported Sunday. Advertisement Hello Kitty will have 11 other goodwill tourism ambassadors to help her do the job, officials said. The cartoon feline was chosen because of its popularity in China, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism officials said. Starting in June, Hello Kitty will have a blog about tourist attractions on the campaign's Chinese-language Web site.
