Showing posts with label blind faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blind faith. Show all posts

Friday 4 December 2009

Cat Cams; Holy Egg; Biscuit muncher; Picture Perfect; and Sun Numptys

Can’t wake up today, slept from 7pm last eve to 7.30 this cold morn; I think I am going into hibernation.









Unlike some MPs who it seems are off to the nightclubs in the name of “research”, The Commons home affairs committee, led by Labour's Keith Vaz, will look at what goes on during "student nights".

Members will look at the latest cocaine-detecting technology and talk to anti-drugs campaigners.

Labour MP Gwyn Prosser has already spent time outside a nightclub in Maidstone, Kent, as part of the committee's preliminary research.

The London visit is scheduled for next Wednesday.

Mr Vaz, MP for Leicester East, is set to be joined by Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP for Newark and Retford.

Yeah right!



And









The drink driving limit may come down to one drink only before you are over the limit. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, has asked Sir Peter North QC to advise on the case for the most significant change. since the introduction of the breathalyser.

There is mounting pressure on the Government to fall into line with other European Union countries by reducing the legal limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50mg.

The 80mg limit allows a man of average height and weight to drink about three units of alcohol — equivalent to a pint and a half of normal strength lager, or three small glasses of wine — and remain within the law.

Cutting the limit to 50mg could put drivers over the limit after just a single pint or a large glass of wine. Slight women would be able to drink even less.

Sir Peter will also assess the case for introducing a lesser penalty for someone who is just over a new, lower limit.

Why not just go the whole hog and reduce it to Zero, then everyone knows what the limit is.



First up:










Being someone who is owned by a feline this little snippet caught my attention: What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out — "cat cams."

Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping.

Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.

"What surprised me was how active the cats were. I believed my three cats were sleeping during the day," said Jill Villarreal, an animal behaviour scientist who collected the data for Nestle Purina Pet Care's Friskies brand of cat food.

The 777 photos studied by Villarreal showed the cats looking at a television, computer, DVDs or other media 6 percent of the time and hiding under tables 6 percent of the time.

Coming in at 5 percent was playing with toys; eating or looking at food finished at 4 percent.

Will the cats get movie cameras next? "We are in the think tank now," Villarreal said.

I feel like hiding under the table, but it is more than 6 percent of the time.










There's a different type of story out of Burleson this holiday season. A couple in the city, 13 miles south of Fort Worth, believes God has given them a divine sign and it's a message spelled out in the most unusual of places.

Tracy and Pam Norrell are calling it a miracle, a gift laid before them on their small farm.
Tracy went to gather the eggs from the chicken coop Monday night, as he does every day.

But this time one egg in particular caught his eye.

Unlike the others, this egg isn't smooth and a very noticeable cross is indented on the top.

The Norell's say the egg was laid 'straight from heaven' and is a message of encouragement that comes at the right time.

"This time of the year, we get so taken up with the presents and money and we forget about the reason," Pam explained. "I think he [God] was just telling us he is the reason for the season."

The Norell's haven't quite decided what they'll do with the egg yet. It goes without saying; the couple says eating the egg is not an option.


Is the yolk on them?








Sweet-toothed Simon Pope - a full-time biscuit designer and tester - claims to have the best job in Britain. His role includes munching 472 packets of every year.

The lucky 41-year-old is the New Product Development Controller for Fox's Biscuits - and seeing how they taste with a cuppa is all part of the job.

He told Express.co.uk: "'I get to study biscuit designs and styles from around the world as well as sampling them. To be honest I sometimes still can't believe I actually get paid to eat biscuits."

While it might sound like a recipe for piling on the pounds, Simon manages to keep trim by mimicking wine tasters and using his own home-made biscuit spittoon.

Simon, who is married with two children and works in Batley, West Yorks, feels he is in a privileged position in his unofficial role as Britain's biscuit guru.

"Part of my job involves testing biscuits once they're in the stores, and I tend to get funny looks when I plonk 200 pounds worth of biscuits down on a checkout till."

Simon admits he also has the occasional biscuit during his office tea break - 'it's important to test them in situ' - and occasionally takes his work home with him.

He rates his favourite biscuit as the Rocky Bar - which he's enjoyed since childhood - followed by Rich Tea.

"So when I'm biscuit testing I'll nibble on it, check for things like taste, texture and firmness, but I don't swallow. It's an art I've acquired in the five years I've been doing the job."


“I don’t swallow”, that’s what they all say.












An orang-utan is making a monkey out of professional photographers after becoming one of the world's most popular snappers.

Nonja's handiwork has been viewed by tens of thousands of fans after keepers at Vienna's Schoenbrunn zoo in Austria gave her a digital camera and set up a Facebook page for her.

Snaps from the digital camera, which issues fruit treats whenever a picture is taken, are uploaded instantly over a Wi-Fi link.

The slightly blurry images of Nonja's climbing rope, food and her companion's shaggy red-brown fur have won lots of admiring comments from fans.

"It's an attempt to see the world through her eyes and see what she thinks is important. She's very artistic," said one keeper.

Nonja turned to photography after a spell as a painter where her works often reach up to £2,000 at auction.

Well, paint is messy and tends to clog up the fur.



And finally:








Catholic pilgrims have suffered eye damage after staring at the sun in the hope of witnessing an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

On one occasion in October, around 10,000 people gathered at the Knock shrine in north-west Ireland hoping to see Mary, despite pleas from an archbishop to ignore invitations to the event by a self-proclaimed spiritual healer.

Some of those present said they had seen Mary, venerated by Christians as the mother of Jesus, and attributed her presence to the sun suddenly breaking through the clouds, changing colour, appearing to come closer or spinning in the sky.

Eamonn O'Donoghue, an ophthalmologist at University College Hospital Galway in the west of Ireland, said he had several patients whose retina had been burnt by the sun during a visit to Knock.

"All of these people were under the impression that they would see strange phenomena if they looked at the sun. It is associated with events at Knock," Dr O'Donoghue told public radio RTE.

"If you get a burn to your macula (a part of the retina) you are going to see bizarre visual phenomena," he said, comparing the effects to frequently observed damage from watching solar eclipses without adequate protection.

The patients could expect an at least partial recovery within months, he said.

Dim eyed Numptys.


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