Cold and frosty at the Castle this Saturday morn, the Unexpected Flaming Object is crawling its way into the blue sky and is shining through the portcullis, the kitchen is empty of any kind of electronic machinery, the birds are coughing and you can hear the garden growing, is it finally spring?
Libya is still in turmoil, Gadaffi has pulled a fast one and the UN mob has fallen for it, Japan is still melting and Car sharing is on the increase.
and the likelihood that Blighty will be destroyed by an 8.9 earthquake followed by a massive tsunami, Energy secretary Chris Huhne has asked the chief nuclear inspector to report on Britain's nuclear safety by mid-May.
The request comes as Japanese authorities increased the alert level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis to level five, signifying an "accident with wider consequences".
Following a meeting of the Nuclear Development Council, Mr Huhne announced a final report would be published within six months but that an interim assessment would be released in just two months' time.
Why?
And:
Communities will be prevented from generating their own solar energy following a government review, campaigners have said.
A clampdown on the growth of solar farms taking advantage of subsidies set up to help small-scale renewable energy has weakened the feed-in tariffs (FITs) system, according to Friends of the Earth (FoE).
Ministers said they needed to take action against large-scale solar farms generating over 250KW, but there are fears that sharply-cut payments for all solar energy projects over 50KW will have a sweeping impact.
Many existing and planned renewable electricity installations by community groups, schools, businesses, councils and housing associations will be hit, FoE said.
"I want to make sure that we capture the benefits of fast falling costs in solar technology to allow even more homes to benefit from feed in tariffs, rather than see that money go in bumper profits to a small number of big investors," climate change minister Greg Barker said.
"These proposals aim to rebalance the scheme and put a stop to the threat of larger-scale solar soaking up the cash. The FITs scheme was never designed to be a profit generator for big business and financiers."
Not really a Piss Poor Tory Policy....
Future generations could be living well into their second century and still doing sudoku to boot, if life expectancy predictions are anything to go by.
Increasing by two years every decade, they show no signs of flattening out. Average lifespan around the world is already double what it was 200 years ago.
Since the 1980s, experts thought the increase in life expectancy would grind to a halt but forecasters have repeatedly been proved wrong.
The reason behind the steady rise in life expectancy is "the decline in the death rate of the elderly", says Professor Tom Kirkwood from the Institute of Ageing and Health at Newcastle University.
He has a theory that our bodies are evolving to maintain and repair themselves better and our genes are investing in this process to put off the damage which will eventually lead to death.
As a result, there is no ceiling imposed by the realities of the ageing process.
"There is no use-by-date when we age, ageing is not a fixed biological process," Professor Kirkwood says.
Life expectancy at birth has continued to increase in the UK - from 73.4 years for men for the period 1991 to 1993 to 77.85 years for 2007 to 2009.
Life expectancy for females at birth has also increased - from 78.9 years (91-93) to 82 years (2007-2009).
Thieves have stolen 40,000 bottles of cough medicine from the back of a lorry in Derbyshire.
The vehicle, which was parked on High View Road, South Normanton, was broken into some time overnight on Wednesday, police said.
The offenders made off with 17 pallets of the syrup-style product while the driver was asleep in his cab.
Officers have appealed for any witnesses, or anyone who is offered the medicine, to get in touch.
Reckon the driver had been sampling the cargo.
Police answering cries for help Friday found a screaming burglar dangling from a ceiling air vent over a hot fat fryer at an upstate New York restaurant.
“He said he thought he was going to die,” said Lt. Michael Brown, spokesman for the police in Rotterdam, New York.
A grease-covered Timothy Cipriani, 46, of nearby Schenectady was pleading for help when he was discovered wedged into the ventilation duct at Paesan’s Pizza in the early hours of the morning.
He had climbed a tree to the roof, where he broke into an air duct to enter the restaurant after it closed, police said.
He was trapped where the vent opened over the fryer, and he became extremely distraught, Brown said.
“The fryer had been used all day, so it may have been generating some heat,” Brown said.
Cipriani was arraigned on charges of burglary, criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools and was held in lieu of $20,000 bail at the Schenectady County Jail, police said.
New topping for a Pizza-sliced fried burglar.
A south suburban Chicago man says he accidentally set his home on fire while he was trying to smoke out the squirrels who'd taken up residence inside the walls.
Robert Hughes says the sound of the squirrels running around inside the walls of his Richton Park town home had been driving him nuts. Hughes says he set off a smoke bomb to drive the squirrels out and that led to the fire.
Now, fire damage has forced Hughes and one of his neighbours from their homes. Hughes says he believes the squirrels are also gone.
No injuries were reported, but the (Tinley Park) SouthtownStar reports that the homes were badly damaged.
Nutty Numpty.
A girl of 16 has been “branded like a piece of meat” by having “100% Welsh lamb” tattooed on her bottom, her furious mother claims.
Police are investigating after schoolgirl Levi Brady was inked. The legal age to get a tattoo is 18.
Mum Renee, 38, of Fairwater, Cardiff, said: “The tattooist has branded my child as a piece of meat.”
Levi had the £30 design as a dare at Tattooland, Cardiff, but now admits: “I hate it.”
Tattoo artist Graham Durham, 67, said: “She said she was 18.”
Yeah…..right.
And finally:
A troop of monkeys at Longleat Safari Park was given a battered old Mercedes to play with and they quickly set about dismantling it…
Click Here to watch
That’s it: I’m orf to cancel my subscription to the New York Times
And today’s thought: Get the facts first . . . you can distort them later.
Angus
