Pistorfius up before the beak: The ‘Orse meat list: Hook, line and sinker: Foamhenge: Dopey driver: and “Stingray”.

Substantial amounts of solar stuff, sod all atmospheric movement, mournful amounts of lack of cold and not even a dribble of skywater at the Castle this morn, managed to oversleep until 8.30 of the am but at least there be hot water in the pipes, turned out it was an air block in one of the pipes and after a gaseous emission all is now well.

 

I see that the media is in a frenzy about some runner with carbon fibre feet

 

On the serious side-condolences to Reeva Steenkamp’s family.

 

That’s enough of being serious.

Allegedly Oscar Pistorfius got even more pissed orf and shot his girlfriend more than a couple of times.

And is appearing in court even as I write this.

The defence is expected to argue that Mr Pistorius is not a flight risk and should be given bail.

 

All they have to do is confiscate his “blades” and he ain’t going anywhere....

  

Worried about consuming Equine bits?

Auntie has published a list of what and where to avoid (click on the link above), which is a bit pointless if they have all been withdrawn. 

 

Dahn in Dorset

Steve Redhead, 51, was hoping to land some carp fish but became the catch himself after his lead weight snagged on overhanging branches.

He yanked his rod a couple of times to free the line before the bulbous object suddenly flew 50 feet through the air and struck him in the face.

Steve dropped to his knees and thought the object had just grazed him at first until fishing friend Matt Barnes told him it was embedded in his right cheek.

An ambulance was called and Steve, from Weymouth, Dorset, was rushed to hospital to have the 50 gram weight removed.

Luckily, the weight didn't break his cheek bone or jaw or damage any nerves.

Steve, who jet-washes wheelie bins for a living, was told the item could easily have killed him had it hit him in an eye, throat or gone through his mouth

After the accident, which happened at Walley's Carp Lake in Osmington, near Weymouth, Steve was taken to Poole Hospital where he had 12 stitches.

 

Apparently the carp which Steve didn’t catch was “THIS BIG” or it might have been “this big”...

 

Left to the home of not a lot of history and the land of the jealous

 

Photo credit

A full size replica of Stone Henge was built by Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studio in 2004, with the pieces in astronomically correct positions. Lest somebody mistook it for the real thing, a sign at the base of the hill cautions: "Please be gentle. It is foam, not stone."

Mark says he went to great pains to shape each 'stone' to its original shape, fact-checking his designs and measurements with the man who gives tours of Stonehenge in England. Each block is set into a hole in the ground and anchored with cement. "I put a 2.5 inch pipe all the way through each one down into the ground, like a nail holding it to the concrete.” And, Mark adds hopefully, "It's non-biodegradable so it might last longer than the original."

 

I do like an optimist....

 

East to the place where Swiss people come from

Manfred Hofer, 49, from Willisau plunged into a stream when he nodded off at the wheel was still asleep when rescuers pulled him out.

Apparently Manfred told police the last thing he could remember was feeling drowsy at the wheel.

Investigators believe he was fast asleep as the car veered off the road, down an embankment and into the stream.

"He says he wasn't aware of anything else until he was woken by the rescue team," said a police spokesman.

"They thought he'd been unconscious but in fact he'd just been sleeping very heavily."

Paramedics say Mr Hofer is recovering from fractures in hospital.

 

But at least he is sleeping well....

 

And finally:

 

Back over to the land of the free and the home of surveillance

Allegedly the FBI is using a secretive new tool. The device, which acts as a fake cell phone tower, essentially allows the government to electronically search large areas for a particular cell phone’s signal—sucking down data on potentially thousands of innocent people along the way. At the same time, law enforcement has attempted use them while avoiding many of the traditional limitations set forth in the Constitution, like individualized warrants. This is why we called the tool “an unconstitutional, all-you-can-eat data buffet.”

Recently, LA Weekly reported the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) got a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant in 2006 to buy a stingray. The original grant request said it would be used for “regional terrorism investigations.” Instead LAPD has been using it for just about any investigation imaginable.

In just a four month period in 2012, according to documents obtained by the First Amendment Coalition, the LAPD has used the device at least 21 times in “far more routine” criminal investigations. The LA Weekly reported Stingrays “were tapped for more than 13 percent of the 155 ‘cellular phone investigation cases’ that Los Angeles police conducted between June and September last year.” These included burglary, drug and murder cases.

 

Wouldn’t work here in Blighty-the signals are far too piss poor.

 

That’s it: I’m orf to update the sat-nav

 

And today’s thought:

 

Angus

Driving us to death: Mechanical morons: Sam Cam’s old motor: Car kids: Welsh Wanker: Eye-eye what’s this then?: and a Good Neighbour.

Loads of lack of warm, little atmospheric movement, less solar activity and lean amounts of skywater at the Castle this morn.

Going to “do” the last bit of splashing coloured stuff on the vertical bits, some of the high horizontal bits and low flat bits this weekend, the ladder is out and I have a parachute and safety net at the ready.

 

According to the Torygraph

Motorists are putting off essential maintenance on their cars because of the rising cost of driving, a survey has discovered.

Eight per cent of people admitted to delaying essential car maintenance, and 37 per cent to ignoring strange engine noises and dashboard warning lights. 47 per cent delay tyre replacement until the tread is at or below the legal minimum, and 22 per cent who do not replace brake pads. The result, if taken across total car ownership, is about one million cars on the road with unsafe tyres and brakes, said Halfords.

The survey also revealed that in order to save money 27 per cent of people said they had switched from main dealerships to independent garages.

 

Dangerously interesting...

 

Which brings me to

This: younger men are more likely to be able to bake a cake than change a tyre, a survey has revealed.

The poll in a survey carried out for JCB Toughphones showed that one in five men under 24 admitted they had never gotten their hands dirty doing DIY tasks.

It revealed that only 15 per cent knew how to jump-start a car, 17 per cent to change a tyre and only 28 per cent said they could change a plug.

But it appears the younger generation feel much more at home in the kitchen with over 70 per cent knowing how to bake a cake.

Those in the 25-34 age group fared marginally better but were similarly useless compared with older men.

Men aged 45 and older were much handier with "manly" jobs, with three-quarters of men over 55 knowing how to tackle more challenging tasks such as wallpapering.

 

Interestingly dangerous...

 

Up in the Norf-ish bit of battered Blighty

A 1971 Fiat 500 L once owned by Prime Minister David Cameron is being auctioned on November 17.

The fully restored car has been estimated at between £8,000 to £12,000 by Silverstone Auctions and will go under the hammer on November 17 at the Footman James Classic Motor Show at the NEC.

It was bought by pre-U-Turn Cam in 1998 as a surprise birthday present for his wife Samantha. The Cameron’s covered only about 1,000 miles in the 10 years that they owned the diminutive Fiat, which has a 499cc twin-cylinder engine.

The car comes with supporting paperwork confirming the prime Monster’s ownership, including a signed letter from him on House of Commons headed paper.

 

Piece of seventies Italian shite....

 

East to the dark continent and dahn to Sarf Africa

Nursery school teacher Melanie Minnie was pulled over by police in South Africa after they spotted her and more than a lot of kiddlies in her motor heading for a burger bar.

Officers found a total of nineteen passengers under the age of consent- Six children were found in the car’s boot, at least three were on the front seat and the remaining 10 piled into the back.

The toddlers were eventually removed from the car, all unharmed.

Ms Minnie told police she was in the process of ferrying a second car-load of youngsters back to the nursery.

Apparently, another 12 children had already been bundled into the Clio.

She was fined just over £100 after admitting she overloaded the motor for the bizarre trip

 

What a cupid stunt...

 

Left to Welsh Wales

Welsh bachelor Gareth Lloyd, 49, has avoided a jail term after making nearly 6,000 phone calls in three months saying his manhood was stuck in household objects including a jam jar and a vacuum cleaner.

The court heard an extensive search was launched to track down the nuisance caller.

Lloyd, of Bryn y Coed, Holywell, made 5,800 calls from an unregistered pay-as-you-go mobile phone between February and April.

BT traced the number but police could not find him.

He was only caught when his number came up on another mobile phone police were analysing.

Lloyd admitted making calls which caused annoyance, inconvenience and needless anxiety, and making calls which were grossly offensive.

He was given a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to three charges under the Telecommunications Act.

 

That guy needs a proper hobby....

 

Left to the home of big and the land of old blue eyes

Word that a giant eyeball had washed up on a South Florida beach has created a buzz on the Internet and in the marine biology community.

The huge, blue eyeball may have come from a deep sea squid or a large sword fish, said Heather Bracken-Grissom, an assistant professor in the marine science program at Florida International University in Miami.

A man found the eyeball while taking a morning stroll along Pompano Beach just north of Fort Lauderdale. He contacted state wildlife officials, who took possession of the softball-sized eyeball.

Allegedly the eyeball's lens and pupil are similar in shape to that of a deep sea squid. She noted that a deep sea squid's eyeball can be as large as a soccer ball and can easily become dislodged.

The mystery likely won't be solved until testing on the eyeball is completed at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

 

Well, eye’ll be buggered....

 

And finally:

 

From my old friend Bernard the news hound

Comes this interesting piece of info

Click on the pic to read the item 

 

Missed out again.... 

That’s it: I’m orf to illuminate a manuscript

 

And today’s thought:

She can change my oil anytime she wants

 

 

Angus

SATURDAY SNIPPETS

I am late posting today because it rained yesterday and BT, crap that it is, is unable to maintain my internet connection (again), and Microsoft is SHIT, because it managed to download an “update” that has ballsed up my logon, so that I can only access the “administrator” user instead of my own logon, and won’t let me delete the “new” administrator logon it created just to annoy, which it has.

Anyway:

Up first is the news on those ugly little smart cars with a 12ft mast topped with a “zoom” camera in Manchester to catch those of us that driving “while distracted” by doing things such as tuning the radio, eating, or driving “without due care and attention” BBC NEWS.

I agree that speeding or using a mobile phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt is dangerous and should be “punished” but what next-picking your nose at a traffic light, or perhaps talking to a passenger or maybe screaming at the kids fighting in the back will be considered a crime by the SS Traffic Police, we already have more than enough speed cameras, and traffic patrols are there to nick the “phoners” and seat belt avoiders, so why are the Police, who are there to catch criminals and protect us from danger using zoom cameras to see what we do in the privacy of our cars.

And the worst bit is that you are not told about it at the time, but the fine comes through the post.

It seems the time is upon us when the final private space we have-our vehicles is no longer sacrosanct, the only way to avoid being fined is to not have any passengers, tune the radio before we set out, don’t put the kids in the cars, have something to eat and drink before getting into our cars blow your nose before you set out and don’t take your eyes off the road to wonder what those ugly little smart cars with a 12 ft mast on top with a zoom camera are doing.




From the The Register The BBC has been fined £150,000 over the Manuelgate scandal, Ofcom has confirmed.

On 18 October last year, Radio 2 broadcast a show featuring Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in which they rang actor Andrew Sachs and left messages on his ansafone which boasted that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers vet's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

On 18 October last year, Radio 2 broadcast a show featuring Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in which they rang actor Andrew Sachs and left messages on his ansafone which boasted that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers vet's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

The full adjudication can be found here (pdf)


Errr, excuse me but who has been fined? The money comes from our license fee, why not fine Brand and “Woss” they are the cause of it.





From the The Sun Googles street view is causing more than concerns about privacy,

A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed — on Google.

The nine silver spheres hover above a row of shops, including Coral bookies, on the internet giant’s new Street View service.

Sun reader Faye Sharpe, 18, discovered them while viewing her neighbourhood of Wolverley Street in Bethnal Green, East London.

Faye said: “I was checking out the road to see if I could spot my mates. I thought it looked very strange and zoomed in.

Take a look UFO fleet menaces east London they certainly aren’t weather balloons.




Another tale about BT my favourite telecom company- The Register NHS Connecting for Health has agreed that BT will take responsibility for the Cerner Millennium installations at eight acute trusts in the south of England.

The NHS National Programme for IT has lacked a local service provider in the south of England since CfH fired Fujitsu in May 2008.

"BT can confirm it has signed a contract to take over the running of IT systems at eight acute trusts in the south of England as part of its NHS national programme work," said the company.

"This takeover was not unexpected," said Victor Almeida, a senior analyst at Kable. "BT is currently implementing a version of Cerner in the London cluster and thus is best positioned to run the sites.

"The big question is what will happen to the remaining trusts in the South, "he added. "Will they opt for BT, will they resort to Lorenzo software provided by the CSC Alliance in the North, where there are several out-of-cluster agreements within the NPfIT, or will they wait for offers from new software suppliers?"

Who cares? If it rains it won’t work anyway.

And finally:

Whatever you do DON’T read this: Bloggers could squeak out of court reporting restrictions it seems that bloggers might be able to escape reporting restrictions on sensitive court cases because they have not been informed of the restrictions.

An ongoing case about a boy said to have fathered a child at 12 years of age has highlighted the issue.

Reporting on that case has been restricted but foreign news outlets have carried stories about it, with versions of those stories appearing on websites accessible from the UK.

Some bloggers have picked up the stories and may be within their rights to publish while national newspapers cannot. The court order imposing the reporting restrictions says that it only applies to people who know about the restriction.

There is no central database of reporting restrictions, so while newspapers are informed of restrictions, bloggers generally are not, opening a legal loophole for their possible publishing of restricted information.


You didn’t read it did you? Good because ignorance is bliss, or blogs.



"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon’s razor


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

SATURDAY SNIPPETS

If you can read this, you are lucky, illiteracy among people in the UK is the subject of a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report.

Although the Gov spent £5 Billion on basic skills resources between 2001 and 2007, illiteracy and poor numeracy remain high.

In 2003, an estimated 75% of the adult population of working age had numeracy skills
below the level of a good pass at GCSE and 56% had literacy skills below this level. At that time, based on data collected in 1996

In 2006–07, around 8% of pupils (51,000) left school without Level 1 (GCSE grade D–G) mathematics and 6% (39,000) without Level 1 English. These young people are likely to require remedial action later in life to address these skills deficiencies.

Which goes to show that if you firk about with the education system enough, you can produce people who can’t read, write or add up.




Sneezing can be a sign of arousal.

Yet more expensive pointless research, Dr Mahmood Bhutta and Dr Harold Maxwell, investigated the phenomenon after reading of a middle-aged patient who had uncontrollable sneezing fits when he thought of sex. And also uncovered three people who claimed to sneeze after orgasm.
They unearthed evidence, via Internet chat rooms, of 17 others - of both sexes - with the same problem.

Dr Bhutta said, “that internet chat rooms could be a potential new tool for investigating the incidence of unusual or embarrassing symptoms that patients may not feel appropriate to discuss with their doctor.”

Two comments, if you sneeze AFTER orgasm then it is a bit too late to be aroused, and this isn’t research, it’s just an excuse to surf the web and talk to people in chat rooms.




Dementia patients are 'safe drivers'

Apparently patients with early dementia can drive safely, a survey has suggested.

The worrying bit is “The risk of crashes among Alzheimer's patients is "acceptably low" for up to three years after the disease becomes clinically apparent, they claim.”

Acceptable to whom?

I don’t believe in curtailing peoples’ rights but just one crash caused by a driver with dementia is one too many, dementia is a sad, cruel and extended illness and sufferers have my sympathy, but driving is controlling a two ton weapon among innocent people, shouldn’t licenses be revoked when the diagnosis is made?





A bit of goodish news for Doctors, the 48-hour week is not compulsory (ish), “Ministers said the European Working Time Directive limit would not have to apply to certain doctors working in emergency medicine, or in rural areas.
Instead, they will remain able to work up to 52-hours a week.”

Two thirds of doctors in the UK already work a 48-hour week.
The opt-out will apply to 20 to 30 units at trusts across the country, including services providing 24-hour care, extremely specialist teams and remote and rural units.

But a spokesman for the Royal College of Surgeons said: "Surgeons are clear that an impending crisis in quality patient care can only be headed off by working 65 hours a week including on call.
"The Department of Health announcement will do little to ease concerns.”

Will somebody PLEASE make their minds up?

Over thinking 'disrupts golf putt'

It seems that if you think too much about playing golf it affects your putt.
St Andrews University and US scientists said they had established that too much analysis made the golfer's game worse.

They said thinking too much about the previous shot can disrupt performance.
In total, 80 golfers were given shots to practise until they got it right. Those who discussed their putting between strokes took twice as long.

Again two comments, waste of research money and why does knocking a small white ball into a little hole cause people to think? (No I am not a golfer-waste of a good walk).

And finally.

Webber's fear for Eurovision act

Andrew Lloyd Webber has said he is worried that one of his Eurovision finalists may not cope well with representing the UK in Moscow.
The composer said that if the public voted for the wrong act he "might not go" to Russia in May, adding: "I really can't be a miracle worker."

Who cares? And who cares?

“Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend”? -Roger Ebert

Angus

OUR FIRST CARS-2

The Herald had gone to the great parts department in the sky and we had our Vitesse.





The Vitesse was a totally different beast, it had a 2 litre straight six engine, the prop shaft, diff and rear drive shafts had been beefed up, new bonnet with double headlights and an overdrive (fifth gear). The heater was improved and gave out the equivalent of Two matches, still no power steering, still couldn’t see out the rear window, but it did have a radio.

The engine was the same as that fitted to the Triumph 2000, a large saloon that was used by the police until the 2000 PI came in.





It had two Stromberg Carbs with “dashpots” that had to be topped up with engine oil every week. The problem, with the Vitesse was the ignition circuit; it was basically the same as the Herald-points and a condenser.

But it didn’t like the damp, which wasn’t a good thing in England.

The other problem was the battery; it held enough charge to turn the engine over for about thirty seconds and then would go flat.

So if you owned a Vitesse you became very knowledgeable about the ignition. I can still remember the firing order-1, 5,3,6,2,4, and the points gap-0.012” and the plug gap-0.025”

Another problem was the brakes. It actually had discs on the front, but when you got the old girl up to speed, the stopping distance was about as short as an oil tanker.

But that wasn’t too much of a problem unless there were other cars in front of you.

We loved it, and expanded our travels, and headed north and northwest.

We found many interesting places, one of which was Henley, and spent our summer Sundays touring about, pub lunches, walks, having picnics and meeting people.

Like the Herald it was a “magnet” and attracted attention wherever we went.

It went like a rocket and was I suppose the “poor mans’” E-Type. It certainly wasn’t as pretty and it didn’t have a top speed of 150. But it would see off most of the other sports cars on the road.

We only had one “hairy” moment that was when we were on our way back from Wales; we were on a dual carriageway and had a tyre burst at about seventy. The radial tyres on the Vitesse were much better than the old cross plies on the herald, and I managed to keep her straight, but it was a “brown trouser” moment.

Winter Sundays were usually spent on maintenance; the Vitesse was a high maintenance car.

Time went on and along side the Vitesse were the Dolomite in all its forms, the 1300 FWD, and the 1500TC as well of course as the Stag.


And as we got a bit older we moved to saloons.

That really is our “first cars” story, but if you want I will continue the saga, with our “later” cars.


Angus