Sunday Section

Still raining down here in ‘Ampshire, so once again I am forced to relax and will watch the F1 GP later, life is all go………

A while ago I posted about cameras getting people into trouble because they have taken photographs in public and were arrested by the police.

Well it seems that times have changed:

Met warns officers off photographers (The Register)

The Met Police has issued guidance to its officers to remind them that using a camera in public is not in itself a terrorist offence.

There has been increasing concern in recent months that police have been over-using terrorism laws and public order legislation to harass professional and amateur photographers. The issue was raised in Parliament and the Home Office agreed to look at the rules.

The guidance reminds officers that the public do not need a licence to take photographs in the street and the police have no power to stop people taking pictures of anything they like, including police officers.

The over-used Terrorism Act of 2000 does not ban photography either, although it does allow police to look at images on phones or cameras during a search to see if they could be useful to a terrorist.

Section 58 of the Act covers the offence of eliciting, publishing or communicating information about any member of the armed forces, spying agencies or the police. But officers must show a reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in terrorism - it is not a blanket ban on photographing working police officers.

The guidelines also remind coppers that they will often work with the media, which can impact on the Met's reputation. Therefore: "it's crucial to maintain good working relations with its members, even in difficult circumstances".

So you can take snaps of almost anything you want, but the “police” still have the power to “inspect” your photos if they have “proper” cause.

This is a good reason to download your snaps and delete your data card before you go out with your camera.

And then they go and do this:

Detectives will be required to consider accessing telephone and internet records during every investigation under new plans to increase police use of communications data.

The policy is likely to significantly increase the number of requests for data received by ISPs and telephone operators.

Just as every investigation currently has to include a strategy to make use of its subjects' financial records, soon CID officers will be trained to always draw up a plan to probe their communications.

The plans have been developed by senior officers in anticipation of the implementation of the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), the government's multibillion pound scheme to massively increase surveillance of the internet by storing details of who contacts whom online.
Police moves to prepare for the glut of newly accessible data were revealed today by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams. She predicted always considering communications data will lead to a 20 per cent increase in the productivity of CID teams.

She told The Register IMP had "informed thinking" about use of communications data, but denied the plans gave the lie to the government line that massively increased data retention will "maintain capability" of law enforcement to investigate crime.

More broadly, new National Police Improvement Agency guidelines will insist on computer training at every stage of development, so that once they are senior investigators, detectives will be "experts" in digital investigation. All current detectives will also be expected to acquire new skills.

Within two years, those without digital investigation skills will "be redundant", Williams warned.

And that is a bad thing?

But there is some good news:

A couple of days ago a budgie was found in the sea off of Brixham, the lucky little plucker has now been re-united with his owner.

Grandfather-of-12 Mr Mike Peel had lost some birds on Saturday it was not until he saw a picture of the normal grey budgie in his local newspaper on Wednesday - his birthday - that he realised it was his.

The retired former cleaning business owner from Brixham, and budgie enthusiast, said that he had resigned himself to the loss of several birds that escaped from an aviary at the bottom of his garden after he left their enclosure unlocked on Saturday as he went for lunch.


"It's amazing," he said.
"I really didn't expect to see it again, I really didn't.

"I've never received one back and I don't know anyone that has.

"I found out on my birthday - it was a lovely birthday present."

"It's a bonus."

Ok Mike, we get the idea……

Want to get pregnant?

Go for ugly men, Handsome men who are lucky in love may not be the best bet as a mate for women hoping to get pregnant, researchers have said.

Uglier men with fewer notches on their belts are likely to be more productive between the sheets, it is claimed.

Research suggests that in many species, the most desirable males restrict their "sperm load" with each mating to ensure enough to go around.

The same could be true of humans and other primates, say scientists.

If they are right, women looking for the best chance of getting pregnant might be advised to avoid handsome Lotharios.

The theory proposes that males have evolved to look for the optimum "sperm load" per mating.
This varies depending on how many available females there are to mate with, and what the chances of mating with them are.

Which is all a moot point now that they have “invented” test tube sperm?

Exam students can 'phone a friend'

School pupils in Austria are being given a phone-a-friend lifeline during exams to boost their results.

Teacher Reinhard Peter - inspired by Who Wants to be a Millionaire - allows students to call a series of experts if they're stumped by questions at his high school in Bregenz.

He said: "They can call doctors, teachers and other people to ask their help."

But he said the experts were often more nervous about the exams and getting the right answers than the students.

Mr Peter said: "Many of them suddenly have exam anxiety as though they were sitting in the classroom taking the exam.

"They get nervous on the phone and feel that if they give the wrong answer they are not only failing themselves but the pupil who is calling them as well."

He said that so far all his pupils had passed the exams though using the phone-a-friend lifeline.
"The worst mark any of them have got is 'satisfactory'," he said.

Sort of defeats the object doesn’t it?

And finally:

MPs are revolting

MPs are in a huff about the crackdown on expenses, with some threatening to resign rather that toe the line.

Apparently they are “seething with anger” after commons officials threatened to stop their second home allowances unless they provided full details of all mortgage or rental agreements were provided by the end of the month.

The reforms include slashing the limit on mortgage and rent claims from £24,000 to £15,000 a year and banning MPs from claiming for repairs on their second homes.


Simple solution: call a general election now, do away with second homes completely, and reimburse rail travel tickets only.


Angus

Angus Dei politico

Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Budgies, Turtles, Sheds, Bottled water and Prezza

Still haven’t mowed the lawn-too wet, and the forecast isn’t good, so next week maybe.

First up:

Brixham Budgie does a duck.

Cathy Jackman, a scuba diver, was about to dive into the water when she saw the hapless budgie floating on the surface.

She made three passes in her boat to pluck the confused budgie out of the ocean and immediately sailed back to shore and took it to an animal rescue centre.

Officials at the RSPCA say they are "amazed" the animal flew so far and was able to survive let alone be spotted in the middle of the ocean.

The bird, nicknamed Captain, must be a pet because budgies are only found wild in the arid outback of Australia.

Captain is now recovering at the Little Valley Animal Shelter in Exeter, where staff are waiting for the owner of the pet to come forward and collect him.


What a lucky little plucker.

Turtles shut down JFK

NEW YORK (AP) — a runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport was shut down briefly Wednesday morning after at least 78 Turtles emerged from a nearby bay and crawled onto the tarmac.

Grounds crews eventually rounded up the wayward reptiles and deposited them back in the brackish water farther from airport property, but not before the incident disrupted JFK's flight schedule and contributed to delays that reached nearly 1 1/2 hours.

"Apparently, this is something the tower has experienced before," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters. "I guess it's the season for spawning."

The invasion began unfolding, slowly, at around 8:30 a.m., when an American Eagle flight crew reported seeing three turtles while taxiing out for departure. Before long, a chorus of pilots was radioing the tower to report turtles either on the end of a runway that juts out into the water, or approaching on the grass.

The FAA halted flights for about 12 minutes shortly before 9 a.m. while some of the turtles were cleared away, and then quit using the runway entirely after getting new reports of "massive numbers" of turtles on the tarmac, Peters said.

And the best quote:

“Jets hit turtles a few times each year at JFK, usually in the final days of June or earliest days in July, according to the FAA's wildlife strike database. There have been no recent reports of the strikes causing any damage to an airplane.”

That’s unless they are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of course.

But is it art?

An artist who constructed a cabin at the bottom of his garden without any plans has been crowned the winner of this year's Shed of the Year. Steven Harwood won the prestigious accolade after following a vision he had in his head to build a "kite cabin" at his home in Llandysul, near Carmarthen, West Wales.

The building gets its name from the view it presents of local kites which wheel in the sky above while looking for prey in an adjacent field.

The 41-year-old, who runs an online cabinet-making business, spent just £1,500 and three months making the 16ft x 16ft (5m x 5m) hideaway in his spare time.

It comes fully equipped with satellite television, a video, two beds and a compost toilet as well as being furnished and carpeted.

It also has a log burner and insulated walls to ensure guests will not feel the chill in the winter months.

Mr Harwood will get a year's supply of cheese, a £50 garden centre voucher, a cushion and a wind-up radio for winning the competition.

Mr Harwood said "I'm an artist so I suppose I'm quite creative and once I get an idea in my head it stays there."

It’s just a shed for ****’* sake!

Mind you the cheese must be worth a fortune (see yesterdays blog).

Bottled water ban

Way down under in Bundadoon in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales there is a revolution dripping, boasting a population of just 2,000, they voted by a huge majority in favour of the move with a show of hands at a public meeting.

Huw Kingston, a local businessman and organiser, said almost 400 people turned up to the Bundanoon Memorial Hall, with only two casting dissenting votes.

"It was the biggest ever turnout in the community here at Bundanoon – it's overwhelming support,'' he said.”We can now continue with our route of making Bundanoon Australia's first bottled water-free town.

"We can go forward with the strength of the community and the businesses right behind us.''
Shops in the town will now be banned from stocking and selling bottled water and filtered water fountains will be placed on Bundanoon's main street so people can fill their bottles for free. Visitors to the town will also be discouraged, but not banned, from drinking bottled water.

Activists say bottling water causes unnecessary use of plastics and fuel for transport. A New South Wales study found that in 2006, the industry was responsible for releasing 60,000 tonnes of gases blamed for global warming.

Since the announcement that the town was serious about giving up bottled water, the New South Wales state government has jumped on the bandwagon, ordering all state government departments and agencies to use water from the tap instead of buying bottles.


Now there’s an idea: get water from the tap to drink, why didn’t someone think of that sooner.


And finally;

Prezza throws a “wobbler”

John Prescott is to contact police over claims private investigators allegedly working for News of the World reporters intercepted his mobile phone messages.

The Guardian alleges News Group Newspapers paid £1m in out-of-court settlements after its journalists were accused of involvement in phone tapping

Prezza said “"I had no evidence of this, though frankly a lot of the stories in the paper were coming from information that was highly private," he said.”It's quite staggering really."

And writing in his blog, he questioned the role of the News of the World editor at the time, Andy Coulson, who now works as director of communications for Conservative party leader David Cameron. “

I have gained exclusive access to a typical day of prezza phone calls:

1 call to Tony asking what was for lunch at the cabinet meeting.

3 calls to a builders’ merchant, inquiring about “fake” beams and:

14 calls to the local Chinese takeaway, requesting-one number 5, two number 33’s, 1 number 47 and 3 number 22’s (double portions).


And a final call home to ask what was for dinner.



Angus

Angus Dei politico

Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE