nstead of your traditional chocolates or flowers, New York City officials decided to celebrate this year's Valentine's Day by handing out free condoms to city residents. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose health department's condom program already distributes 1. 5 million free condoms each month, hopes the city's special Valentine's Day efforts will help encourage people to engage in safe-sex practices during the holiday and beyond.

When the world's tallest man, Sun Ming from China, officially joined the American Basketball Association, he was given an XXXXXXL sweat shirt to wear, and it still didn't fit him. ABA is touting 23-year-old Ming as the tallest player in the history of professional basketball, with a height of 7 foot 8 and 3/4 inches (236 cm). Ming wears size 19 shoes and weighs at least 335 pounds. As a new entrant to Maryland Nighthawks, he wore a uniform with the number 79 - symbolic of his giant height.

A study to determine the worst sound in the world ranks the noise of someone vomiting at the top. The study was done by Trevor Cox, a professor of acoustic engineering at Salford University that tallied opinions on 34 sounds at the website www. sound101. org. The online study lasted for a year and garnered 1. 1m votes. Results showed that microphone feedback was considered the second worst sound. Crying babies and the scrapes and squeaks of train wheels came in a tie for the third place.

British heir to the throne Prince Charles is traveling to New York City to receive an environmental award flying a scheduled flight instead of a chartered plane so he could lessen his carbon footprint. Ironically, the Prince booked the entire first-class and business class section of a jumbo jet for his 20-strong party where there are 62 seats, which translates to a carbon footprint that is three times bigger than if all seats was used.

Biologists say the man who says he spotted a mountain lion near his home, might have actually seen a large house cat. However, DuWayne Hendrickson does not accept the explanation and sticks to his statement. Hendrickson says he spotted a mountain lion in south of U. S. Highway 2. "I saw it myself for 30 seconds from about 100 feet away. I've been around animals all my life. I'm not an idiot," he added.