Butter ... is there anything it can't do? Add this to the long list of the awesome things butter can do: in China, they use it to prevent suicides!
Government officials in south-east China have ordered workers to cover a 1,000 ft long steel bridge in butter to prevent citizens from using it to attempt suicide.
All the climbable surfaces on the structure in Guangzhou have been covered in greasy fat to put an end to the spate of people threatening to jump from it, The Sun reports.
Government spokesman Shiu Liang said: "We tried employing guards at both ends but that didn't work - and we put up special fences and notices asking people not to commit suicide here.
"None of it worked - and so now we have put butter over the bridge and it has worked very well. Nobody can get up there and nobody who tries ever falls."
It's very, very worrying that the Chinese government is ordering the lubing up a bridge to stop suicides - how bad is it out there?
Why didn't they use anti-climb paint? It's made for the express purpose of preventing people climbing anything you put it on and it stays slippery and unset for years. Unlike butter, it won't wash off in the rain, won't go rancid and won't draw flies.
That would really suck if the jumper slipped, fell, and promptly suffocated from a peanut allergy.
@Morgan
They would use salted. It keeps away the evil spirits of jumpers.
or maybe they'd already put elbow grease. ah, ah.