Hire and fire

Have a blast, folks

If you?ve always thought that your professor was a nitwit and that given a chance, you?d blast him into outer space with a Scud missile, there?s an ad up on eBay that you ought to take a look at. Richard Moore of Cambridge has put up a Scud, complete with its launcher truck, for sale on the site. Moore hopes that the highest bid will at least fetch him a neat ?22,500. The missile, possibly of Ukranian make, hasn?t got an offer yet, but that?s hardly something to keep Moore down. According to him, a Hollywood film company has begun negotiations but nothing has been finalised yet. Moore is just keeping his fingers crossed. By the way, the size of the truck is such that it makes a Humvee look like a toy.

Money not for nothing

From clothes to food stuff ? relief material has poured in from all corners of the world for the hapless tsunami victims. Now the Chennai-based Association of Accredited Advisors on Overseas Education has come out with a plan to put the smile back on the faces of such students. The association announced on Thursday a scholarship programme for 100 students who lost their parents in the December 26 disaster. Each student will be granted an amount of Rs 20,000 over a period of two years to pay for their uniform, books and tuition fees. All the students have to do is deposit the relevant death certificates and a school certificate to apply for the grant. The association hopes to raise the Rs 20 lakh from UK universities.

The daredevil experience wasn?t bad enough. The Ben Affleck-Jennifer Garner flick was a turkey at the box office, but Garner refused to take the hint. She returns to her role as the eponymous ninja queen in Elektra. More pow-wow?

Poll-time promises

Betcha this is an election promise you?ve never heard before. Anup Tanwar, a small-time actor who is in the fray for the Haryana Assembly polls, is promising jobs in Bollywood while on the campaign trail ? just when you thought that politicians had no more gimmicks left to pull off. The BSP candidate, who himself has worked in Bollywood for some time, says that this is his way of helping people.

Kiss and tell

Close up

The next time you?re up close and personal with your beau, keep these interesting figures in mind. Scientists say that a typical French kiss allows the transmission of 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria. The findings are being publicised by Swedish pharmacists touting the cause of good oral hygiene. They are also looking for a couple to break the longest-kiss record of a 30-hour-plus smooch on Valentine?s Day. If the record is smacked off, the winning duo would also have burnt off a whopping 7,436 calories.

AWARD OF THE WEEK

Goes to Salila Parida, the US-based Oriya producer, who is in the state to make Woman from Georgia, a movie on a girl who committed sati in India 120 years ago, and was reborn in a Western country.