Training the enemy?: Speedy cat burglar: Nicked from the Nickers: Pussy sheepdog: and a Hug machine.

Nice start at the Castle this morn-sunny, calm, warmish and dry, if it stays like this I may be able to do some fettling in the garden later.

The study is overflowing with fixable whatnots, and I am sooo looking forward to Windows 8....not.

I see that the Olympic free for all ticket site crashed after a whole sixty seconds, no surprise there then, and The Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition is closing down the Central Office of Information (COI) with the loss of up to 400 jobs. Even less of a surprise.

Meanwhile, after sacking trainee RAF pilots, the knobs at the MOD have decided to “actively seek” foreign personnel to pay for “surplus” training places left by British personnel dismissed earlier this year, a minister has admitted.

The Daily Telegraph revealed in February that scores of RAF pilots in training are being sacked to save money.

A defence minister has now admitted that because the trainees were dismissed at such short notice, the staff and equipment for their training are still in service and must be funded.

To help meet those costs, foreign pilots will be trained. Trainee pilots from countries including Algeria and Kenya are understood to be taking up the vacant training places at RAF bases.

 Yet another Piss Poor Policy.

Over to the land of cheese with holes in

A Swiss cat called Speedy has stolen so much loot that its owner had to post leaflets throughout the northern town of Wiesendangen saying "Help, our cat steals!".

Margrit Geiger said her cat began bringing home shuttlecocks to impress her teenage son three years ago. 

Klepto cat....

Left quite a lot, and up a bit

An investigation is underway in Saanich, B.C., after a coin drop box collecting money for children with cancer was stolen from a police station.

Police said an officer noticed the coin box, which was raising money as part of Cops for Cancer, was missing from the main counter of the station Monday morning.

"An officer became suspicious as to the whereabouts of the coin drop box and began to investigate. At first, the officer thought that the drop box may have been taken to be emptied as it had a significant amount of change in it," police said.

When the box couldn't be located, the officer viewed video of the front desk and discovered the coin box had gone missing around 10 a.m. June 16.

Police said the video showed a woman at the counter at that time "acting in a suspicious manner." The woman initially walked up to the counter, left, then returned. She then allegedly covered the box with her large purse and "stole the box right out of the police station," the release said.

The suspect is known to police.

Makes you feel safe...doesn’t it?

Back in Blighty

A Border Collie has been branded Britain's worst sheep dog after developing a fear of his flock.

Despite his pedigree, Ci proves instinct alone is not enough to overcome a bad case of ovinophobia.

The four-year-old developed his fear of sheep when owner Jane Lippington placed him in their field as a puppy.

Mrs Lippington, 54, from at Langridge, near Bath in Somerset, said Ci instinctively wants to work the sheep, but is too scared.

"If they run away from him, he will go after them and act like a proper sheepdog, but the moment they turn and face him he runs away," she said.

"Sheep can be quite aggressive if they think they have the upper hand - they stamp their feet and gang up in numbers and act like an army.

 Baamy.

 And finally:

 East to the land of tsunami’s and glow in the dark dust

Japanese inventors have pushed the frontiers of technology with the ultimate companion for lonely singles - a wired torso-shaped device that you can hug and that hugs you back.

The Sense-Roid looks like a tailor's mannequin with silicon skin and is packed with pressure sensors.

It is connected to a jacket worn by the human user that replicates the embrace with the help of air compressors.

The illusion of a mutual hug with the half-humanoid is enhanced by artificial muscles and vibrating devices in the tactile jacket, according to the inventors from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo. 

That’ll help with the clean up.

 That’s it: I’m orf to have a wedgie in space 

And today’s thought: Whatever it is -- I didn't do it!

 Angus