Offbeat

South Pole cricket match on Scott centenary
 
A team of British adventurers won a chilly game of cricket against “the rest of the world” at the South Pole on Tuesday, marking 100 years since the arrival there of explorer Robert Scott.
Battling temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit) and sliding over the ice, the British side beat an international team of scientists from Antarctica’s Amundsen-Scott research station by two wickets.
“Obviously it was very cold and difficult with all the bulky clothing to bat and bowl,” said the victorious team’s leader Neil Laughton, a former officer in the British army’s elite SAS special forces.
“But we managed it fine. I thought it was quintessentially British and I wanted to do something that does not happen down here very often, if at all.”
Tuesday marked 100 years exactly since Scott’s ill-fated group of British explorers reached the South Pole, more than a month after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
Scott and four of his compatriots died on their return journey, falling victim to extreme cold, exhaustion and starvation.
Laughton, who followed in Scott’s tracks to raise money for several charities, said he hoped the explorer would have been pleased by Tuesday’s victory.
“With the British outcome, at least he is looking down hopefully and this put a smile on his face,” he said.

‘Nuckin Futs’ snack gets go ahead in Australia

A snack called “Nuckin Futs” has got the green light to be sold in Australia after regulators accepted the profanity it parodies was part of everyday speech, a report said yesterday.
The Trade Marks Examiner initially ruled that the name was inappropriate and rejected a trademark application, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported.
But lawyers for the unnamed Australian company that wants to market the product argued that the word “fuck” was a normal part of Australian speech and could not be deemed offensive under trademark rules.
“We submit that whilst there may be a mere sentimental objection or mere distaste to Nuckin Futs, this is not a sufficient ground for rejection of the trademark, particularly since a substantial number of people would not find the words shocking,” a five-page legal submission said.
Almost a year after the application was rejected, the examiner agreed to accept the trademark on condition that the owner does not market the product to children, the newspaper said.
Lawyers for the company said the product, mostly comprising edible nuts, would only by sold in pubs, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.