“Bond of faith”: A Cloud of Data: Billy the Kid: Surfing Shark: Hair today....: and Post it bandits.

We’re havin a heatwave at the Castle this morn, ‘tis is a nice cool 78f dahnstairs and a balmy 87f up the spiral staircase, just got back from my gruel, stale bread and pussy food run to Tesco-usual debacle, the garden still needs fettling, His Maj is trying to find somewhere less hot to settle down for a kip, and the phone calls have started from desperate users wanting their fix.

The “good” news is that after one and a bit days of “summer” the weather will take its usual turn and “they” are threatening Thunderstorms and Tornados later this Monday.

According to the BMA

Trust between doctors and patients risks being shattered by new government proposals.

Opening the Annual Representative Meeting in Cardiff, the association's chairman, Dr Hamish Meldrum, will speak of the threat to the bond of faith between doctors and patients as an Ipsos MORI poll shows they are the most trusted profession, with an 88 per cent rating.

Government ministers and politicians are at the bottom of the poll, with 17 per cent and 14 per cent believing they will tell the truth. "In times of crisis, trust is more important than ever. This trust will be the key to getting through the challenges we face over the next few years. And yet there is a danger that this trust could be put at risk by some of the Government's plans," said Dr Meldrum. 

Ha bloody ha...

And staying with our poor old, ailing NHS

The knobs at the DOH have come up with a cunning plan to use the “cloud” to store all our medical records.

The new NHS pilot project, where records are kept on the internet rather than on computers in individual hospitals or GP surgeries, could pave the way for all patient data to be stored online rather than on paper. Patients using the system would have control over who is permitted to access their data and could use it to invite specialist doctors to view their results.

Hackers recently claimed to have obtained NHS administrator passwords. The two-year pilot project, developed by Flexiant, a Scottish-based computer firm, and Edinburgh Napier University, will initially use simulated records. 

They don’t learn do they?

Meanwhile across the wet thingy to the left

The only known authenticated portrait of the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid has sold for $2.3m (£1.4m) at auction in Denver, in the US state of Colorado.

The tintype - an early form of photo using metal plates - is believed to have been taken in 1879 or 1880 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

It depicts the gunfighter in rumpled clothes and a hat, gazing at the camera and holding a Winchester rifle.

The tintype was bought by private collector William Koch. 

If that what it costs to develop film nowadays I think I will stick to my digital camera.

Down a fair bit

A surfer in Florida got the shock of his life when a shark jumped over the back of his surfboard.

The spinner shark was caught on video by an Orlando Sentinel photographer Jacob Langston who shooting surfers at New Smyrna Beach.

As the 1.2 metre shark makes the leap, the surfer whips his head around so see what had caught his eye.

Langston told the Orlando Sentinel he didn't know until later, when back at his job editing the video, that he had filmed a bizarre scene on his afternoon at the ocean. 

Surfin USA...

 Dahn Unda

A southern Queensland farmer has discovered a new way of deterring foxes from killing his lambs.

Organic farmer Jonathon Arkins has been collecting human hair from local salons and tying it to fence posts around his Greenmount property, south of Toowoomba.

He says the technique seems to be working so far.

"I just get old women's stockings," he said.

 Bet the old women are annoyed.

 And finally:

 Back in broken bollixed up Blighty

Britain’s world-famous red post-boxes are being stolen by criminals who flog them abroad for ­thousands of pounds.

The metal boxes are being ripped from lampposts and telegraph poles while others have been chiselled out of brick walls. In some cases, entire pillar boxes have been uprooted from the ground. Police believe cars or trucks have been used to drag them from their foundations.

Many antique boxes are being sold over the internet as souvenirs to collectors abroad, especially in the US. Royal Mail has been hit by a wave of thefts, especially in rural areas, in recent months.

Crooks stole 10 boxes from three villages near Hythe, Kent, in one recent incident. Other thefts have been reported in Sussex, Lincolnshire and Anglesey, North Wales. Many end up on eBay where dozens were being advertised last week.

Post-box prices have boomed in recent years after Royal Mail stopped ­auctioning off old stock in 2003.Experts say boxes dating back to Queen Victoria’s reign and bearing the VR mark can fetch up to £5,000 in America. George V boxes dating back to 1910 are worth around £1,000 while more modern ones can go for hundreds of pounds.

Bit like the price of a stamp......

That’s it: I’m orf to for a flap run.

And today’s thought: In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats.

 Angus