Massive movements of atmosphere, bucketfuls of sky water, beneath
contempt amounts of lack of warm and not a ray of solar stuff at the Castle
this morn.
Still putting coloured stuff on the walls and things (mainly
the floors), still haven’t got the butler to fire up the furnace, and still
watching the garden disintegrate “under the wevver”.
Apparently scientists dahn on the sarf pole do-da are not
happy snowpersons, a row has broken out over the fate of one of the country's
most distinguished scientific organisations, the British Antarctic Survey. The
60-year-old outfit, whose achievements have included the discovery of the hole
in the ozone layer, is to be merged with the National Oceanography Centre in
Southampton as part of a cost-saving exercise.
The merger – which would create a Centre for Ocean and Polar
Science based in Southampton – has been proposed to satisfy government demands
for major cuts to be made in the budget of the Natural Environment Research
Council (NERC), which funds the BAS. Science minister David Willetts wants a
10% cut in NERC expenditure and a 45% reduction in its capital spending by
2015. Polar research, which is costly, has been chosen to take a major hit.
But the downgrade threat has outraged scientists and
politicians who say it will seriously weaken Britain's scientific reputation
and its ability to carry out climate research.
Oh dear what a shame; I do climate research for free-just
read the first sentence of this piss poor blog every day...
A “Government advisor” has come up with a cunning plan to make
the wevver better. Buyers of gas-guzzling sports cars and other large-engine
vehicles would face a new purchase tax of up to £23,000.
Even the price of some small cars would rise by more than
£1,500 in exchange for the abolition of annual Vehicle Excise Duty payments.
But buyers of new small efficient cars would get a
government subsidy of up to £750, under the proposed rules, which are being
promoted by the Liberal Democrats.
The proposals for vehicle taxation come as the Treasury
considers the best way to reform or replace VED to respond to the increasing
fuel efficiency of modern cars.
For instance, the purchase price of 1.25 litre petrol Ford
Fiesta would rise from £9,084 today to £10,734. By contrast, a 1.6 litre diesel
model of the same car would become cheaper, falling from £11,845 to £11,495.
Vehicles that currently have similar prices would diverge
sharply under the new rules, Mr Leunig suggests. For example, he cites Ford and
Chrysler people-carriers, currently both on sale for around £28,000.
Under the new scheme, the Chrysler would be £3950 more
expensive than the Ford, because it has much higher emissions.
The biggest up-front subsidy of £750 would be applied to
cars including the Toyota Yaris.
While the most-polluting cars would attract very large tariffs, with some
Aston Martin models facing a new sales charge of £23,050. Around 150 luxury models -- with total annual sales of around 5400 cars --would face a first registration fee of £10,000 or more, the report estimates.
The plan is put forward today in a think-tank paper written
by Tim Leunig, who has recently been appointed a special adviser to the
Government.
Bugger! I have been saving my pennies to buy a new Asbo Martin...should
be able to get it in abaht two hundred and fifty years....
A US brewery which
announced it was making beer out of bull testicles as an April Fool's Day stunt
has now done it for real.
The Wynkoop Brewing
Company, in Denver, Colorado, has named its creation Rocky Mountain Oyster
Stout.
Head brewer Andy
Brown said: "Yes, the beer was inspired by our April Fools spoof video
this spring, in which we claimed to have released a beer made with bull
testicles.
"When we sent
out the press release and the video link last April, we heard from brewers and
beer writers who thought the beer was for real and loved the idea.
"So we've
turned our joke into a reality. We've been making ballsy beer for the past few
years. And this is great proof of that."
Mr Brown described
the beer as an "assertive foreign-style stout, slightly viscous, with a
deep brown colour".
Rocky Mountain
Oyster Stout, named after the local name for fried bull's testicles - a
delicacy in Colorado, goes on sale at the brewery's pub in Denver on 8 October.
"It has
equally deep flavours of chocolate syrup, Kahlua, and espresso, along with a
palpable level of alcohol and a savoury umami-like note. It finishes dry and
roasted with a fast-fading hop bite," he added.
Glad I don’t drink.
Allegedly a survey has unearthed that one in five of us
think that parsnips grow on trees.
According to the research, a worrying number of
British grown-ups did not know that the root vegetable is grown underground.
Other figures dug up include 20% of adults who
think that melons come from the ground.
And one in 20 believe they can find a Granny Smith
in the potato aisle of a supermarket
To mark Potato
Week, experts have now simplified how the veg is listed on shelves with signs
stating “Fluffy”, “Salad” and “Smooth” so shoppers can select the right kind
for their meals.
It comes as the
poll of 2,000 Brits found half pick the wrong potato to roast.
More than a third
can’t boil spuds without them crumbling or losing their shape and over a
quarter ends up with lumpy mash.
Ms Evans added: “To
get great results you need to pick the right type of potato.
Ye gods! Are we really that thick? Maybe the picture will
educate the 20%.
A new species of puny dinosaur has been confirmed by
researchers at the University of Chicago.
It has been named 'Pegomastax africanus' meaning 'thick jaw
from Africa'.
The creature is so small it has taken decades to
identity. The discovery was originally made in 1983 from a specimen found in a
slab of red rock found in southern Africa in the 1960s.
Its size made Mr Sereno think whether "anyone else
might spot the creature hiding among the lab drawers".
Pegomastax measures less than two feet (61cm) long and
weighed less than a house cat.
It has been described as a cross between a bird, a porcupine
and a vampire because of its fangs and blunt beak.
The creature belongs to a class of small herbivores called
heterodontosaurus and lived around 200 million years ago.
Who’s not a pretty boy then...
And finally:
Bees at a cluster of apiaries in north-eastern France have
been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their
keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at
a nearby biogas plant is the cause.
Since August,
beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen
bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colourful substances that
have turned their honey unnatural shades.
Agrivalor, the
company operating the biogas plant, said it had tried to address the problem
after being notified of it by the beekeepers.
"We discovered
the problem at the same time they did. We quickly put in place a procedure to
stop it," Philippe Meinrad, co-manager of Agrivalor, told Reuters.
He said the company
had cleaned its containers and incoming waste would now be stored in a covered
hall.
Mars operates a
chocolate factory near Strasbourg, around 100 km (62 miles) away from the
affected apiaries.
M&M&M&M&M......
That’s it: I’m
orf to test out Einstein’s theory
And today’s thought:
Two pints please landlord
Angus
