Saturday Snippets

Barking mad, Yellow peril, Prezza, Top Gear and Brits abroad

And here is the weather: sunny, warm and apparently there will be weather all day, and even all night so say the experts.

First up:

Who let the dogs out?

Across the pond in Three Rivers, Michigan a man has been arrested in for barking at a police dog. The Three Rivers Police Department said officers responded Monday evening to an apartment complex to investigate a suspicious situation.

Police said Wednesday in a statement a 26-year-old man in the area "began to torment" a police dog inside the patrol car by barking and shouting at it, causing the animal to become excited and "very aggressive."

The man was arrested and later released on bond. He faces a charge of disorderly conduct.


He was sent home with a bone, a stick and his walkies were curtailed.

Expensive banana

The Crown Prosecution Service spent £20,000 on the trial of a man accused – and later acquitted – of stealing a 25p banana, it has emerged.

James Gallagher, 23, was found not guilty this week of stealing the fruit from an Italian restaurant in Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre before it opened at 8.45am on 13 March.

The two-day trial was heard in Birmingham crown court rather than a magistrate’s court – incurring significantly more costs for the CPS – because Gallagher elected to have his case heard in front of a jury. He said he believed that magistrates would have found him guilty.

Gallagher, from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, said after the trial: "It's shocking, it's just a waste of taxpayers' money. I cannot understand how they've got away with it."

The CPS defended its decision to spend around £20,000 on the case. In a statement, Martin Lindop, the district crown prosecutor for Birmingham, said: "It is not the cost of the item that determines whether we proceed with a prosecution, but whether there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and it is in the public interest.

"In this case, we felt that there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest for the prosecution to proceed."

British Justice at its best

Pot-Kettle-black?

Prezza has come out fighting over climate change, Vital UN climate change talks in Copenhagen are likely to collapse unless rich nations agree a "social justice deal" built around equalising emissions per head in each country, according to the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

Speaking to the Guardian, Prescott admitted that the formula would require far greater sacrifices by rich nations, especially the US. Prescott, one of three politicians to broker the original UN climate change deal in December 1997, is to become deeply involved in trying to ensure there is a successor to Kyoto.

He met leaders of Barack Obama's climate change team in Washington a fortnight ago, and is due to travel to China on 8 September at the same time as Lord Mandelson, the business secretary.

He will be given an honorary professorship at Xiamen University for his work on climate change.
Prescott will also stage an international conference from 28 September on the principles of a deal for Copenhagen, to be opened by Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and addressed by Al Gore. The conference, organised by the Council of Europe, will have 65 states present.

Prescott is also going to lead a Gore-style campaign in schools in October showing the film The Age of Stupid, starring Pete Postlethwaite, portraying a devastated planet in 2050 owing to world leaders' failure to act on climate change.

So he is flying all over the world, eating copious amounts of food and then telling the rest of us not to fly all over the world or eat copious amounts of food.......

Bottom gear

There is a rumour about that Top Gear will not return after the last episode was shown this week, I hope it is wrong, what I hope will happen is that the presenters will be replaced with “normal” people.

The show used to be interesting, and actually was about cars, but it has degenerated into a farce, Jezza is about as PC as Hitler, and has managed to offend lorry drivers, pikies, and just about any other section of society that constitutes its audience.

All we get now is presenters playing with very expensive motors that are far beyond the means of the majority of motorists, trips to all parts of the globe paid for by the license payers, so that they can enjoy themselves, ridiculous road trips featuring ancient bangers (paid for by the license payer), and inane tests set by the producers (paid for by the license payer).

Jezza, the Hamster and captain slow have become arrogant and inane, and think they are very funny, not in my book, can we not return to the days when a car programme was about cars that we can actually afford, and give information that is relevant to us, and inform the license payer about said cars.

And finally:

Flasher flashed

A Greek woman appeared in court in Crete today accused of setting fire to a British tourist after he allegedly pulled down his trousers in front of her.

Marina Fanouraki, 26, was charged with assault after the incident in the holiday resort of Malia in which she is said to have poured a flammable liquid over the man and set fire to it with a lighter.

Stuart Feltham, 20, from Swindon, suffered second-degree burns and is recovering in a private clinic. He was reported as having suffered burns to his genitals, but the Foreign Office said it understood that his chest and abdomen were injured.

The story made headlines in Greece, where some have hailed the woman a hero. Tension between drunken British tourists and locals in Crete is on the increase. Only last month two British visitors were beaten up in Malia after one crashed a motorcycle into a supermarket.
Fanouraki, a student, turned herself in to police and she appeared in court in Iraklion, the biggest town in Crete, wearing jeans and large dark glasses.

She claims she was acting in self-defence and only threw a drink in Felltham’s face.

Her lawyer said: "He fondled my client's breasts and buttocks and she poured her drink over him and left. Shortly afterward she heard cries and saw her friends trying to extinguish him."
Fanouraki was given time to prepare her defence and will appear again in court next week. When she was released she was congratulated by passersby.

Feltham, a plumber who lives with his parents, was coming to the end of a two-week holiday on the Greek island with five friends when the incident occurred at the Stefanos Hotel, Malia, on Wednesday night. He had been out at a party and returned to the hotel bar.

His father said: "The hotel staff had been very good to them, and he wanted to buy the barman a drink and say goodbye. He was burned from his neck to his bellybutton, and his hair's been singed. He's fine now, and we've spoken to him. The doctors say he's progressing well, and he's in good spirits. We just want him home – we want to look after him."

Last month British officials launched a campaign across the Mediterranean urging tourists to drink sensibly and keep out of trouble. Hotels and bars in destinations including Majorca, Turkey and Crete are stockpiling leaflets, cards and posters produced by the Foreign Office that entreat tourists to "know their limits".

In Greece, where young British tourists account for more than 70% of consular cases, messages such as "drinking makes you more vulnerable to violent crime" have been put on beer mats.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said of the incident in Malia: "We can confirm that in the early hours of Tuesday a British male national was assaulted in Crete. We understand he suffered burns. He has been receiving consular assistance."

Flaming hell!

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