Monday 16 July 2012

Fruitless payments: Self defence pens: 1652 Coffee ad: Times to stop the rain: Phthalates: and Austin Healey comes home.


Wet, cold, windy and winsome at the Castle this morn, his Maj is still fed up, the left elbow is well on the mend and the interweb thingy went tits up yet again yestermorn due to the vast amounts of skywater, and it is as slow as the slowest thing you can think of this Monday. 

Bit late, been dahn to Tesco on the stale bread, gruel and his Maj’s food run, good news is that his fave Whiskas meat in jelly is back dahn to three squids a box and his Dreamies are still at one squid a packet.

The Farnborough air Show is finally over, peace has returned to the Castle and his Maj can stop hiding under the stairs.




Allegedly the Home Office wasted nearly half a million pounds on unsafe rubber bullets they are not allowed to use.
Under a section titled "Fruitless payments" in its annual accounts, it shows that £427,000 was spent on baton rounds bought from abroad even though they did not pass UK safety standards.
The decision meant they could "not be used in the UK".
The payment was part of more than £806,000 needlessly spent under the "Fruitless payment" section which also included a botched property transaction.
The section of the report describes them as "payments for which liability ought not to have been incurred or where the demand for the goods or services in question could have been cancelled in time to avoid liability".
The latest accounts also reveal that the Home Office is expected to spend £11.2 million renovating a grade 1 listed used as a training centre for police.
The money was spent on renovating the Jacobean mansion in Hampshire which since 1960 has been the home of the Police Staff College.


I can think of a use for 650 of them....





Japanese customs officials who impounded 200 pens more than a year ago said Friday the writing implements needed a weapons import licence because they were shaped like bullets.
Fountain and ballpoint pens made by US firearms and knife manufacturers, including Smith and Wesson, have been held up by inspectors in Nagoya and Osaka since April 2011.
The pens, which are made from a mixture of titanium and other metals, are fashioned to resemble bullets on the non-writing end.
A Nagoya customs official told AFP that under international regulations, the pens are classified as self-defence weapons, adding: "Special procedures are needed for the import of such products."
The company had successfully imported and sold the pens, which ranged in price between 5,500 yen ($70) and 32,500 yen, from 2008 to 2011.


So the pen really is mightier than the sword....
 



When coffee was very expensive and rare comes this ad.


It supresseth Fumes exceedingly, and therefore good against the Head-ach, and will very much stop any Defluxion of Rheumas, that distil from the Head upon the Stomach, and so prevent and help Consumptions and the Cough of the Lungs.

It is excellent to prevent and cure the Dropsy, Gout, and Scurvy.


It is known by experience to be better then any other Drying Drink for People in years, or Children that have any running humors upon them, as the Kings Evil. &c.

It is very good to prevent Mis-carryings in Child-bearing Women.

It is a most excellent Remedy against the Spleen, Hypocondriack Winds, or the like.

It will prevent Drowsiness, and make one fit for Busines, if one have occasion to Watch, and therefore you are not to drink of it after Supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder sleep for 3 or 4 hours.



Mind you, it still is expensive....



And that venerable pay to view paper known as the Times cometh this editorial: 

"Let us make our position crystal clear: We are against this weather,"

"It must stop raining, and soon."

The Times lamented that the country was full of discounted swimwear, unsold garden furniture, and unused barbecues. It even said that the country's potato harvest has been affected - pushing up the price of chips
"When the proverbial cheapness of chips comes under threat, The Times says enough is enough," the editorial said.
"The British climate is supposed to be unpredictable," it continued. "At the moment, it is anything but. If sustained sunshine is too much to ask for, most of us would settle for a little bit of fickle."


Still waiting.....




According to “experts” A group of chemicals found in personal care products may raise the risk of diabetes, a new study suggests.
Women in the study with highest concentrations of these chemicals, called phthalates, in their bodies were more likely to have diabetes than women with lowest concentrations, the researchers said.
Phthalates are found in a variety of products, including nail polish, hair sprays, soaps and shampoos.
There was also a link between high concentrations of phthalates and insulin resistance among women who did not have diabetes. (Insulin resistance is often a precursor to Type 2 diabetes).
The findings suggest that phthalates could disrupt blood sugar metabolism, said study researcher Tamarra James-Todd, of Brigham and Women's Hospital's Division of Women's Health.
 The good news is that the study surveyed participants at only one point in time, and more research is needed that follows women over years to confirm the results.#

 Panic over-for now.....
 


A Texas man whose prized sports car was stolen 42 years ago recovered the vehicle in California after spotting it on eBay, authorities said Sunday.
Robert Russell told the Los Angeles County sheriff's officials that he had never given up searching for the 1967 Austin-Healey after it was stolen from his Philadelphia home in 1970.
The 66-year-old retired sales manager from Southlake told the Dallas Morning News (http://dallasne.ws/ML2fBq ) he paid a friend $3000 for the car. It had sentimental value to him because it was stolen the morning after he took his future wife out on their second date.
Russell said he spent years surfing the Internet looking for the car and didn't have much hope of finding it
"The fact that the car still exists is improbable," he said. "It could have been junked or wrecked."
He said he checked on eBay periodically and spotted it a few weeks ago. He immediately called a Beverly Hills car dealership that was selling it.
He said the vehicle's identification number matched that of his car. He had the original key and car title, but not a copy of the stolen-car report to prove that it was stolen from him.
Russell contacted Philadelphia police for help and learned that the stolen-car report wasn't showing up at the FBI's national crime index because one vehicle identification number was entered incorrectly. The report was finally found and the file was reactivated, enabling Los Angeles authorities to impound the car.
Russell and his wife, Cynthia, drove to Los Angeles and took possession of the car. It's now valued at $23,000.
"It still runs, but the brakes don't work well," he said. "We're going to put it back the way it was


Ain’t modern technology wonderful.......?





And today’s thought:
G4s Olympics




Angus

5 comments:

James Higham said...

Dropsy, Gout, and Scurvy, eh?

Just have to have a sip.

CherryPie said...

My internet is still playing up on and off too!

Angus Dei said...

Good job the advertising standards people weren't about back then James:)

Have you got underground phone lines like we have at the Castle CherryPie?

CherryPie said...

Yes we have and I have seen the BT van at the new box on more than one occasion since it was replaced...

Angus Dei said...

Water, water everywhere and most of it is in BTs cables:)