Cold, crusty and clear at the Castle this morn, the butler
has set up a conveyor belt to shove fat teenagers into the furnace, the fall
down and lay in vomit thing has returned, and his Maj has discovered the joy of
the nice warm airing cupboard.
And the interweb thingy has gorn tits up-again, started this
at 05.30, still here-08.00.
Is in a bit of bovver in Turkey, a court
has said it plans to prosecute the Duckess of York for secretly filming orphans
in the country for a television documentary in 2008.
The court plans to accuse her of going "against the law
in acquiring footage and violating privacy" of five children.
The Duckess visited the orphanage near Ankara while making a
film for the ITV Tonight programme and filmed scenes of children tied to their
beds and left in cots all day.
Turkish officials made a formal request to the Home Office
for help as they tried to bring a case against her in the past.
British ministers refused to accede to the further
request for legal assistance from Turkey so from a UK perspective the case is
closed.
The reasons for refusal were that the minister
considered that to provide the assistance requested would have been likely to
prejudice the sovereignty, security, ordre public [public order] or other
essential interests of the United Kingdom.
I can see millions out on the streets supporting the
Duckess-not...
Has “vowed” to overturn three Lords defeats on welfare
reform, after peers dramatically sent the bill back to the Commons.
The government proposals were branded
"devastating", "severe" and indecent last night, as peers
argued that the plans would effectively deprive disabled children of funds.
"The government has been defeated because quite simply
they tried to cross the basic line of British decency," shadow work and
pensions secretary Liam Byrne said.
"For months Labour has been determined to stop this
cruel attack on cancer patients in its tracks and today the House of Lords
agreed."
Welfare Minister Chris Grayling told the Today programme the
government intended to strand firm.
"We have said very clearly that we will seek to reverse
the amendments in the Lords when it comes back into the Commons," he said.
"We are dealing with some extraordinarily difficult
economic times financially."
If the government is acting confidently, it is because it
knows it has significant public backing for its welfare reforms plans.
Bollocks; so why are they going to do yet another U-turn on
child benefits?
General Motors Co has issued a recall of over 4000 of their
current year Chevy Sonic subcompacts, because there is a possibility that
they might be missing inner or outer front brake pads. This recall is in effect
for both Canadian and US vehicles as their internal research shows that between
20 and 30 vehicles were sold with missing brake pads. The issue was discovered
during some routine maintenance on a rental fleet car.
And nobody noticed?
Cows in Russia's republic of Yakutia are being given
hand-made fur bras.
Because Yakutia is officially the coldest place in the northern hemisphere, even the cattle need to be prepared for very low temperatures.
And with it sometimes reaching minus 55 degrees Celsius, some farmers have taken to producing hand-made rabbit fur accessories for their animals, reports rt.com.
The cow bras are said to consist of a rabbit fur pouch for their udders which is held in place through a series of straps.
Udderly wonderful, wonder if they do a ball brace for the
male members of the herd....
My favourite retailer didn’t do too well over Crimbo;
apparently like-for-like UK sales at
Tesco were down by 2.3% over the festive what knot, the supermarket giant has
reported.
Britain's largest
retailer said the results, for the six weeks to January 7, were "below
expectations and disappointing".
It also warned that
it expected "minimal" profit growth for the coming year.
The supermarket's
share price plummeted by more than 14% on the news.
Non-food sales were
particularly bad and the fall came despite Tesco's Price Drop promotion.
Tesco chief
executive Philip Clarke said: "We are disappointed with our seasonal
trading performance in the UK.
If they didn’t charge three times the price for cheese as
they did a year ago then Worrall Thompson wouldn’t need to “borrow” it...
Toulouse le plummet
is a $12,000 cat - and that's not due to his breeding but the cost of surgery
after surviving a fall from a seventh floor flat.
The six-year-old
tom landed on his feet in the early hours of December 30, but broke all four
paws. Owner Renelle Williams said it was amazing Toulouse suffered no internal
injuries when he landed on the bitumen below.
"We were on
the balcony and the cat would normally have a routine of jumping on to the
next-door neighbours' balcony for a visit. He's gone over and probably
fallen," Mrs Williams, of Surry Hills said.
Mrs
Williams and her husband had to decide whether to keep Toulouse alive with an
operation that required metal pins to be inserted into every toe and from his
ankle through to his feet.
The cost
of the orthopaedic surgery and recovery is expected to be about $12,000. She
said they weighed up the decision and based it on the quality of life he would
have once the bones healed.
Toulouse
is recovering at home and will have the pins removed in six to eight weeks.
Sydney
University Veterinary Hospital specialist surgeon Ben Landon said it was fairly
common for cats to fall from apartment blocks, with the phenomenon known as
"high-rise syndrome".
One down, eight to go....
And finally:
A newly identified hormone that mimics the effects of
exercise could one day help people lose weight and fight obesity-linked
diseases without surgery.
Lab mice that were injected with this hormone lost weight
and improved regulation of their blood sugar levels, which lowered their risk
of diabetes, according to researchers in a new study. Normally the hormone,
which the researchers have named Irisin, builds up in the blood of people after
doing months of endurance exercise.
I want some-now!!!!
That’s it (finally): I’m orf to the workshop.
And today’s thought:
Angus
