Sunny, cold and calm at the Castle this morn, I may try to
mow the lawn later-if it has dried out enough and in preparation I have moved
the bench to the ‘shady corner’, it looks so good I think I will leave it there.
And his Maj has managed to destroy his cat flap (in the back
door not his rear exit), so I had to go dahn the town to purchase a new one, and
while there popped into the “sorting office”, paid the ransom on my fence
staples and came home more than a few squids lighter.
Because of errors about 1.6 million people will start
receiving demands within the next two weeks for an average £537 shortfall in
the tax they paid last year, HM Revenue and Customs warned yesterday.
Meanwhile a further 3.5 million will be sent a rebate for
the 2011-12 tax year, averaging £379.
If the figures are correct for the tax year which ended on 5
April, then Britons overpaid more than £1.3bn in tax for the year. Meanwhile,
HMRC's miscalculations means it will be forced to claw back more than £849m
from unsuspecting taxpayers.
Think they need a new abacus....
Apparently Millions of mothers who have chosen to take time
out of work will no longer be penalised once they are pensioners, Iain Duncan
Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has announced.
However, the overhaul is expected to hit wealthier workers,
as the state second pension will be scrapped.
At the moment, people who do not work for 30 years do not
qualify for the full basic state pension. Under the reforms, mothers and carers
will be treated as if they had worked throughout their lives, benefiting them
by £2,000 a year.
Mr Duncan Smith said women would be the "major
winners" in the reformed system, which will mean that everyone who works
or looks after others will receive a flat-rate payment worth at least £140 a
week.
The measure will be applied to women who retire from 2015,
giving an average of £40 extra a week to mothers who took time out of work.
Currently, they receive a reduced entitlement for each year out of employment.
Chuffin wonderful-but it won’t save the Piss Poor Policies Millionaires
Club Coalition in a couple of years...
Biomechanical engineer David Edwards has launched AeroShot
Chocolate, an inhaler which provides the taste of chocolate in breathable form.
Using a small lipstick-sized tube, consumers draw fine
particles of chocolate into their mouth to experience the taste of pure
chocolate "re-imagined".
Aeroshot Chocolate follows the release of caffeine product
AeroShot Energy earlier this year which used the same patented delivery system
to administer a dose of breathable caffeine.
The product taps into the new-age food trend of
"whaffing" or inhalable eating.
Edwards says the product works because the particles are
small enough to enter the mouth and too large to go beyond it.
"The chocolate melts immediately upon landing in your
mouth," the Harvard University biomedical engineering professor said.
"Since the particles are so small and uniformly dispersed by the air, the
taste is immediate, too.
The product is available in three dark chocolate flavours:
pure chocolate, mint chocolate, and cherry chocolate and is designed to
accompany a coffee, curb an afternoon craving or be consumed as a guilt-free
dessert after a meal.
It is being launched this week at the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois and will be
available for consumers to purchase online from June 15 for US$2.99 ($2.97) per unit.
Cheaper to buy the real thing-sod the calories...
It is being launched this week at the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois and will be
available for consumers to purchase online from June 15 for US$2.99 ($2.97) per unit.
Cheaper to buy the real thing-sod the calories...
Chris Smart, 32 couldn't afford the classic Ferrari he'd always
wanted - so he spent two weeks sketching and painting one on his garage door
instead.
Married Chris, who
studied art at college, said: "I hated the garage door before because it
was really dull.
"I saw garage
covers on the internet and wanted one unique to me. I have always loved this
particular car and wanted to make it a bit of fun.
"People do
have to do a double-take and they smile when they realise what it is. Lots of
kids have been taking photographs."
The realistic
three-dimensional scene also includes Harry Potter's broom, a KFC bargain
bucket and a paint pot with Chris' name on it.
But the creative
garage door hides a boring, standard garage, which contains tools, a push bike
and boxes of junk.
Wife Kerry, 32,
added: "Painting the car on the garage door is as close as he's ever
likely to get to it unless we win the lottery."
Bless....
Researchers have demonstrated how to make origami using
light of a specific wavelength.
They call the new folding technique photo-origami, and it
could potentially be used as a way to manufacture 3D structures.
The team of mechanical engineers led by Professor Martin
Dunn of the University of Colorado at Boulder has published a paper on their
simulations and experiments of photo-origami in a recent issue of Applied
Physics Letters.
Because photo-origami only uses light and a mechanical
straining force to fold materials, it could potentially serve as a simple,
automated sequential folding process. In their study, the researchers
experimentally demonstrate how photo-origami works using a flat,
two-dimensional polymer that contains photoinitiators. First, the polymer is
stretched to create a mechanical strain. Then light is applied to a specific
area of the polymer, such as along a line to be folded, which causes the
photoinitiators to disassociate into free radicals. The highly reactive
radicals then fragment and reform polymer chains, resulting in stress
relaxation in the chosen area. This redistribution of stress through the
material causes a change of shape as the material strives to achieve mechanical
equilibrium, folding along the chosen line.
That process results in a single fold. For each additional
fold, the irradiation, and potentially straining, steps are repeated. When the
steps are performed in a specific sequence, the technique can produce complex
shapes. To demonstrate, the researchers fabricated a heart and a six-sided
closed box.
“In principle, this could make many complex structures
consisting of bends and folds in arbitrary directions and sequences,” Dunn
said. “The computational simulations can be used to design myriad structures,
many that we could not conceive without simulations.”
As a form of technical origami, photo-origami could enable
applications far beyond origami’s original purpose as a creative art. Technical
origami can be used in situations in which an object must be stored and
transported and later deployed for use. This need arises, for example, for
space-based solar arrays, automobile airbags, tissue engineering, shopping
cartons, and photovoltaic cells that optimally capture sunlight throughout the
day. Origami could also be used to fold molecules into specific shapes for the
purpose of tailoring their molecular properties.
Clever; but doesn’t it take all
the fun out?
The scandal erupted just days before Koreans observe a national holiday to celebrate the birth of Buddha, the holiest day of the religion's calendar.
The head of the Jogye order, which has some 10
million followers, or about a fifth of the population, made a public apology on
Friday, vowing "self-repentance".
South Korean TV networks aired shots of monks
playing poker, some smoking and drinking, after gathering at a luxury lakeside
hotel in late April for a fellow monk's memorial service.
"The stakes for 13 hours of gambling were more
than 1 billion won ($875,300)," Seongho, a senior monk who uses one name,
told Reuters on Friday.
He said he had reported the incident to
prosecutors.
That’s it: I’m orf to search the sandpit
And today’s thought:
Just relaxing.
Angus
3 comments:
The shady corner does look very nice with the bench installed.
I agree with Cherie - I'd leave it there. Thanks for cheering me up as always, Angus.
advice taken :)
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