Memo to diamond dealers: If you don't want to lose your precious gems, don't put them inside race cars.
A flawless diamond worth about $350,000 embedded in the nose of a Formula One car was lost to the ages when the car's driver plowed into a guard rail at the Monaco Grand Prix (search) on Sunday, reports the Independent of London.
"At that point, I should probably have been worried about the car or the race or the driver," Jaguar team spokesman Nav Sidhu said to the newspaper, "but, I must admit, my immediate thought was for the diamond."
Two identical shirt-button-sized gems were embedded in the noses of both Jaguar team cars (search) before the start of the well-known race, in which Formula One cars race through the winding streets of the tiny principality on the French Riviera at speeds up to 175 mph.
Even worse, driver Christian Klein crashed during the first lap, meaning that the Jaguar team had to wait until the race was finished two hours later before being allowed safely out into the track to look for the diamond.
By that point, the race cars' massive wheels could have taken the gem anywhere, and spectators who had heard the news jumped onto the track trying to find it.
"We have 100,000 people milling around trying to find a bit of crashed car across the course," said Sidhu. "I don't expect we are going to get it back."
Since the cost of underwriting a diamond of such value at such a risky event would have been astronomical, the lost gem was not insured.
The diamonds were part of a one-time publicity stunt promoting the Israeli gem firm of Steinmetz (search), with an additional tie-in to "Ocean's 12," the upcoming movie starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon that involves a European jewel heist.
Sidhu said he hadn't yet spoken with the diamond firm, but said, "at the end of the day it is the sponsor that will take the loss."
Reality-Show Race to Make Babies
SINGAPORE (AP) — The prize: US$100,000 — and a baby.
Ten couples from around the world could compete in a reality TV show in Singapore to see who can procreate first, the city-state's self-styled sex guru said last week.
"We've not started the recruitment, but people have heard about it," said Wei Siang Yu. "The main prize is the baby, of course."
Wei said he hopes the show, "Dr. Love's Super Baby Making Show," will be beamed across the world and shown locally by MediaCorp (search), the government-owned national broadcaster, later this year.
"I don't think there will be anything pornographic," Wei said when asked about screening in notoriously censor-happy Singapore, where the government constantly urges citizens to start families to reverse an aging population trend.
Nine foreign couples and a Singaporean couple will take part, he said.
They will lead their normal daily lives of work and play, but will have their movements closely monitored. The winning couple will be the first to test positive with a pregnancy test kit, Wei said.
"It's about conception, not about birth," he added.
Singapore has made baby-making a top national priority after it recorded its lowest-ever birth rate last year since independence in 1965.
Only 37,633 babies were born in 2003 — way below the 50,000 it requires for defense and economic purposes.
The self-confessed nanny state has so far tried to impassion its citizens into mother- and fatherhood with tax breaks, cash bonuses, state-subsidized child care, and even a state-sponsored dating agency.
— Thanks to Out There reader Tim G.
Year-End DVD Gets High Schoolers In Trouble
CHESTERFIELD, Missouri (AP) — Two students were banned from their high school graduation for making a DVD featuring senior class highlights that included hidden photos of female students competing in a wet T-shirt contest.
Ross Weinshenker, 18, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he and a classmate created the DVD as an independent study project, then sold it to other students to raise money for charity.
Weinshenker said the revealing photos from a recent Spring Break trip were added as a prank, but he thought they had been removed. When he learned they could still be accessed on some DVD players, Weinshenker said he tried to get the copies back.
"I did the best I could to fix it," Weinshenker said.
When officials at Parkway Central High School discovered the photos, the two students were barred from Thursday's graduation ceremony and received failing grades on the class project.
However, both will receive their diplomas, district spokeswoman Suzanne Miller said.
Weinshenker said one of the girls in the photos attended his school and another was from a nearby school. Weinshenker, who was not on the trip, said another student gave him the photos.
I Feel Sorry for You, But You're Still Guilty
HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — A juror wrote sympathetic words to the defendant, gave him $10, then voted to convict him of selling cocaine in a school zone.
"I did it because I work with abused people with problems," the juror, Rose Chavarria, told The Record of Bergen County. "I am sorry, but I think that was good to [give] him some strong words."
Anton Pettway, 25, of Hackensack, was arrested last year for selling a bag of cocaine to an undercover officer in Hackensack. His two-day trial ended May 11.
During a recess before deliberations began, Chavarria approached Pettway in a park outside the courthouse and gave him a card and $10.
"You are a very intelligent young man," Chavarria wrote. "I think you are not guilty. You are a victim of the circumstances."
"If you have children, please think about their future," the card said. "Get an honest job. ... Be strong."
Chavarria and the other jurors then deliberated for two hours before returning their guilty verdict.
A defense lawyer for Pettway said the contact should nullify the verdict, but failed to persuade state Superior Court Judge John A. Conte.
"The verdict will stand and there will be no mistrial," Conte said last Monday, after interviewing Chavarria in his chambers. The judge said Chavarria did not tell her fellow jurors about the contact and that she still agreed with the unanimous guilty verdict.
Pettway was held without bail and faces up to five years in prison when sentenced June 18.
Hungry Moose Eats Roses, Destroys Bicycle
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — The massive moose didn't take it for a joyride, but she did run off with Bjoern and Monica Helamb's bicycle, the couple said Monday.
The married couple was ready for the moose, which has visited their yard in Vuoggatjalme in northern Sweden annually since 1995 to snack on their roses. This year, though, they put their bicycle in front of the flowers in a bid to protect them.
"So we thought we would at least protect our favorite roses from her appetite by making it harder for her to get to them," Bjoern Helamb told The Associated Press.
It didn't help.
The moose, dubbed "Droopy Ear" because of her deformed ears, slid her head through the bike's frame and munched on the roses last week, sating her appetite with a flowery feast.
"Then she disappeared, with the bike hanging around her neck," Helamb said.
He found the bike later, about 1,640 feet from the house, bent apart and beyond repair.
Despite purloining the bicycle, Droopy Ear came back over the weekend for roses, but was chased away by the couple.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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