Major lack of warm, minor solar stuff, minimum atmospheric
movement and sod all skywater at the Castle this morn, just returned from the
stale bread (£1.45 per loaf) gruel and his Maj’s food run dahn Tesco, I managed
to struggle through the non-blizzard on the non-icy road without freezing to
death and return to the non-snowed in Castle safely.
And Blogger still haven’t got their mouse/s out of their
arses and sorted out the photo insertion do-dah, I have been fucking about with this post since before 8 of the am.
And it keeps freezing up.
And it keeps freezing up.
When I got back his Maj showed me what he thought of the news.
Allegedly there will be a new flat rate pension of £144 plus
inflation rises between now and 2017. The current full state pension is £107.45
a week, but can be topped up to £142.70 with pension credit.
At the weekend, the Daily Telegraph reported that more
than six million workers would pay higher NI contributions under the
shake-up.
Those affected are expected to include around 1.4 million
private sector staff enrolled in final salary schemes and contracted out, said
the Telegraph.
The flat-rate pension will be paid only to new pensioners
reaching state pension age from a date expected to be 6 April 2017, the
government is expected to announce. Millions of existing pensioners, and those
who qualify before then, will get their entitlement under the current system.
And when does this daft old fart “retire”-17 September
2016.....
Apparently emergency service staff is being offered bonuses
to avoid sending out 999 ambulances, control room staff have been told they
will each receive £250 if they can reduce the number of ambulances sent to 999
calls, by getting callers to rely on another health service like a GP or NHS
Direct.
London Ambulance Service, Britain’s largest, is giving out
the cash in an attempt to save its ambulances for the most pressing emergencies
- and hit national targets for responding on time.
Managers say they are struggling to cope with rising demand,
with the number of calls from people seriously ill or injured rising by 14 per
cent in the last year.
A spokesman said control room staff would receive the bonus
if, on average, they referred 30 per cent of callers deemed to have minor
health problems to other health providers, such as out-of-hours GPs, NHS Direct
or pharmacists.
Paul Woodrow, director of service delivery for London
Ambulance Service, defended the incentive system, saying it was designed to
ensure that ambulances were saved for those who needed them most.
He said: “We are incredibly busy and need to make sure we
have enough ambulances available for our most seriously ill and injured
patients.
Coastguards have criticised five German cruise ship
passengers who hired an inflatable boat to get a close-up look at the wrecked
Costa Concordia liner.
The group, including two children, had to be rescued after
their tiny boat was swamped by waves, whipped up by storm force winds. All were
suffering from the effects of the cold.
Officials said the party were holidaymakers from the Costa
Magica, a cruise liner from the same Costa Cruises fleet as the ill-fated
Concordia, which struck rocks last year leaving 32 people dead off the Italian
island of Giglio.
The Germans had arrived at Civitavecchia and made their way
to Porto Santo Stefano where they hired the boat so they could take a look at
the stricken Concordia which is still lying on rocks just outside the entrance
to Giglio harbour.
Although they managed to sail the 10 miles from Porto Santo
Stefano without any problem, on the return leg the weather suddenly changed and
the boat got into difficulties.
But it managed to stay afloat and they were picked up by a
coastguard vessel which took them back to the mainland.
Once on dry land, they were given hot drinks and wrapped in
thermal blankets and after being given the all-clear by paramedics they were
taken back to Civitavecchia where they resumed their cruise ship holiday.
A coastguard spokesman in Porto Santo Stefano said: ''It was
a pretty stupid thing to do. They were lucky that it ended as it did - they
could have quite easily sunk.
Dags Hofrats, 23,
has come up with the Pizza Cone, which costs £2.70 and comes in nine flavours
including pepperoni, mushroom and spicy chicken.
Dags said: “It’s very easy to eat, doesn’t make a mess. I love them, and have one every day.”
The cone is made
from pizza dough and Dags imports the ingredients from Italy.
He started a trial at Glasgow Caledonian University campus and sold 1,000 in just six weeks. Now he plans to sell them nationwide.
He started a trial at Glasgow Caledonian University campus and sold 1,000 in just six weeks. Now he plans to sell them nationwide.
Num, num, num.
And finally:
Enewetak Atoll is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the
Pacific Ocean, located 305 kilometres west from Bikini Atoll, and was a major
test bed for nuclear weapons, post World War II. Before Enewetak came under the
control of the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands, it was under the Japanese control that used the atoll as refuelling
stop for planes flying between Chuuk Lagoon and the islands to the east. After
the capture of Enewetak, it became a major forward naval base for the U.S.
Navy. Then the island was evacuated and the nuclear tests began.
Between 1948 and 1958, Enewetak Atoll witnessed 43 such as
tests including the first hydrogen bomb test in late 1952 as part of Operation
Ivy, which vaporized the islet of Elugelab.
In 1977, an effort to decontaminate the
islands of Enewetak began. During the three years that followed, the military
mixed more than 111,000 cubic yards (85,000 m3) of contaminated soil and debris
from the various islands with Portland cement and buried it in a 30-foot deep,
350-foot wide blast crater on the northern end of the atoll's Runit Island. The
crater was created by an 18 kiloton test bomb nicknamed “Cactus” on May 5,
1958. A dome composed of 358 concrete panels, each 18 inches thick, was
constructed over the material. The final cost of the cleanup project was $239
million.
After the completion of the dome, the United States
government declared the southern and western islands in the atoll safe for
habitation in 1980, and residents of Enewetak returned that same year. Today,
you can visit the dome and stomp across the surface.
And today’s thought:
Revenge of the snowmen.
Angus
