Hell of a “Lord”: Cutting council cuts: Cactus cat: I me wed: Lot of photo: and Panda poo tea.

Not bad at the Castle this morn, warmish, dampish and calmish, the study is void of any broken what-knots, and I am finally orf to visit “Ms” sister in the smoke.

And today’s worm pic-getting a bit fed up with it now.

Poor old thieving Lord Hanningfield

Who stole £14,000 from us has told auntie that “he has been through "hell" for two years over his expenses.”

The former Essex County Council leader said he slept better in prison than he had during the police investigation and said: "I've paid my debt."

He said he did not believe at the time he was doing anything wrong in making claims for overnight stays in London when he actually returned to Essex.

He was jailed for nine months in July but was released on licence in September and currently wears an electronic tag and observes a 1915 GMT curfew.

 Oh dear, what a shame.....

Over the Solent

Two disabled men who faced losing their right to care won a landmark High Court case yesterday over cost cutting by their council. It was the latest in a series of rulings that threatens to disrupt the Government's attempts to slash local authority spending.

Campaigners said the judgment, in which the Isle of Wight council's plan to reduce its adult social care budget was ruled unlawful and quashed, should serve as a warning to every council that is planning cuts.

It is the second High Court ruling this week to deal a major blow to local authorities seeking to save millions of pounds by targeting adult social care in the wake of massive central government cuts to their budgets.

Mrs Justice Lang, sitting in London, ruled against the Isle of Wight's plan to restrict access to social care by making it harder for people to meet eligibility criteria. The judgment makes it unlawful for councils trying to make cuts to adult social care to ignore the impact this will have on a person's quality of life.

Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition take note.

Way over to the left

An Arizona kitty was perched atop a giant saguaro cactus for at least three days before finally coming down on its own.

Residents living in a desert area northeast of Phoenix noticed the black cat with white patches at the very top of the 30- to 40-foot cactus.

At times, the feline would stand up and survey the area, possibly trying to figure out how to get down _ or how it got up there.

Helicopter video shows the cat eventually climbing down the cactus Friday. It started making its way down head-first before turning around and scooting backward. It finally took a big leap and landed on its feet before wandering into the desert.

Cactaceae cat.

West even further

Apparently thirty-year-old Wei-yih Chen, an office worker from Taipei, was uninspired by the men she had met from whom she would have picked a marriage partner.

So she decided to get married-to herself.

She posed for a set of photos in a flowing white dress, hired a wedding planner and rented a banquet hall for a marriage celebration with 30 friends. She even paid for a solo honeymoon to Australia!

“Age thirty is a prime period for me. My work and experience are in good shape, but I haven’t found a partner, so what can I do? It’s not that I’m anti-marriage. I just hope that I can express a different idea within the bounds of a tradition,” said Chen.

Her wedding, costing NT$50,000 (approx. US$1,500), has generated much online attention in the form of more than 1,800 mostly sympathetic comments.

Bet her wedding night was a blast....

 

Right more than a smidge and a bit

A 1999 photograph of the Rhine River by German artist Andreas Gursky has sold for $4.3 million in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction.

Titled "Rhein II," the chromogenic colour print face-mounted to acrylic glass, had a pre-sale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

It sold Tuesday at Christie's. The buyer was not disclosed.

The previous record for any photography sold at auction was Cindy Sherman's "Untitled," which fetched $3.8 million at Christie's in May.

Gursky's panoramic image of the Rhine is one of an edition of six photographs. Four are in major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London.

 

Must have a look through the old photo albums for the most boring pic I can find.

And finally:

Back over to the East

College lecture An Yanshi has collected five tons of panda excrement to create a new type of tea.

He believes the rich fertiliser will give rise to a unique aroma that will make his brew a connoisseurs' favourite, which he will be able to sell for up to £50,000 per kilo.

'Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 per cent of everything they eat. That means their excrement is rich in fibres and nutrients,' Yanshi explained.

'It has a mature, nutty taste and a very distinctive aroma while it's brewing.'

Yanshi, who collects the poo by the lorry load from the Giant Panda breeding centre in Chengdu, Sichuan province, southern China, aims to secure the Guinness World Record once his first batch of the expensive blend is ready for sale.

Can’t wait to see that in Tesco’s.

That’s it: I’m orf to the centre of the Earth. 

And today’s thought: Never feed your cat anything that doesn't match the carpet.

Angus

Red Lorry, Yellow lorry: Taxi! I need a phone: Too late to rob; Ring pull peril; and Panda Poo.

Bloody cold this morn, I knew that while still under the duvet because the cat was wrapped round my head like a Davy Crockett hat (remember those?) and I can’t stop sneezing.










Today is not a very good day, it is ‘our’ 38th wedding anniversary, we were married in Manor Park, Aldershot, and there was an inch of snow on the ground, the frost today is very reminiscent of then, happy days.









Anyway, not your problem, I see that former Commons Speaker Lord Martin has said MPs were "bullied" into referring their expense claims for investigation.

He said journalists with no "prima facie" evidence would justify running stories on MPs by persuading someone to call for an investigation.

"Vexatious" complaints were often made against MPs in marginal seats, he said.

Lord Martin was elevated to the Lords after being effectively forced out as Commons Speaker in May over the way he had handled the row over MPs' expenses.

What a load of bollocks, and he didn’t do too badly out of it did he.

And, Government bodies and councils have been ''blind'' to the needs of white working class communities, Cabinet minister John Denham has said.

The communities Secretary called for a new focus on the needs of poor whites affected by mass immigration.

And he said state agencies charged with tackling inequality and disadvantage should no longer focus solely on ethnic minority groups.

Instead they must ''re-assess'' their priorities to include poor whites as well.

And about bloody time, Gord doesn’t help when he says things like “our priority will be middle class families” Nu Labour, head up arse syndrome.

First up:

As it is the day that the Lisbon treaty comes into force, I thought I would include this little tale:

Mega trucks, (25 metres long and 60 tonnes weight) are in danger of being imposed on the UK by EU bureaucrats using unsound biased research.

Middle ranking European Commission officials have rehashed previous flawed research, which distorts the argument in favour of mega trucks.
Mega trucks, which the consultants themselves state are individually more dangerous than a standard HGV, relies on a significant reduction in lorry miles, which we have exposed as unfounded.

Isn’t there a means of transport which is just as big and can carry much more? Oh yes it is called a TRAIN!

Need a mobile? Ask a cabbie

Londoners lose an average of 10,000 mobile phones in the back of taxis every month, with Christmas the worst time.

A further 1,000 other portable technologies like laptops or iPods are also left in black cabs each month, according to a survey of cab drivers in the capital.

Steve McMenara, a spokesman for TAXI, the magazine of the Licensed Taxi Driver Association, said: "It’s a known fact that this is the worst time of year for forgetting 'property' in the back of cabs, but especially mobile phones and laptops as they slip onto the floor or get forgotten on the seats as passengers rush onto their next destination with their hands full.

"More people travel into London to buy their Christmas presents during this period who are not regular cab users, they hop a cab to get back to their train stations – and it’s always about an hour later we get a panicked call on their mobile phones asking for them to be returned."

The survey was carried out on behalf of a security firm, Credant Technologies. Sean Glynn, vice-president, told The Register: "We carry out our taxi survey regularly and it’s clear that none of us are infallible, especially at this busy time of year, when it’s all too easy to forget things when you’re travelling.”

"It used to be small items like brollies and briefcases stuffed full of boring office papers. Now it’s laptops, smart phones and thumb drives, all chock-full of valuable information to an identity thief."

Bet it’s not “young” people who lose them because most of them have mobiles surgically attached to their ears.

Numpty of the week (so far)

From over the pond and west-ish a bit: A bank robber arrived six minutes after the Guardian Credit Union in Waukesha closed. Police said a man wearing a ski mask entered the first set of doors at 5:36 p.m. Wednesday with a gun, apparently not realizing the bank was closed.

The second set of doors was locked and police were called but the man left before they arrived.

Waukesha Police Sgt. Jerry Habanek told The Freeman in Waukesha that police are reviewing security tapes and investigating. He said the robber could have planned poorly or possibly had another reason, like getting tied up in traffic.

Or maybe he is just a NUMPTY without a watch.

Swallowed your ring?

Again from over the big wet salty thing, to the windy city: Beverage can tops are still finding their way into the stomachs of some children, especially teens, despite being redesigned in the 1970s to keep people from swallowing them, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

A 16-year study at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre found 19 children had swallowed the safety tabs, which are designed to fold back but stay attached to cans for soda and other beverages.

"I think we all know if you fiddle with these stay tabs, you can easily break them off," Dr. Lane Donnelly, who led the study, told reporters at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago.

The study included children aged 1 to 18 at his medical centre, but he suspects many cases go unreported.

Donnelly said he suspected children break off the tab, drop it into the soda can and inadvertently swallow the tab. When broken, the tabs have jagged edges that could perforate the stomach or intestine.

Since the tabs are made from aluminium, they are much harder to detect on an X-ray than coins, which babies and toddlers often swallow, Donnelly said.

He said parents should be aware of the problem and that beverage companies might consider a newer design that makes the tabs harder to break off.

As for the children in his study, none required surgery, although one was sent home with explicit instructions from the emergency department that read: "No sucking on can tops."

The world is a dangerous place.

And finally:

Wang Wang and Funi

From South more than a lot but not quite as far South as you can go:

A predicted $600 million-plus tourism boom from Adelaide Zoo's new giant pandas will see no marketing opportunity go to waste, including capitalising on Wang Wang and Funi's waste.

They say in life you only get out what you put in and in the case of giant pandas, that is almost literally true.

Adelaide Zoo CEO Chris West explains.

"That's right. Panda poo rather looks like strained chopped bamboo," he said.
"It's very undigested."

Panda passings are low in nutrients but high in micro-organisms.

Television gardening expert Malcolm Campbell thinks it is a great product.

"Dig it in and the micro-organisms start to work on locked up nutrients in your soil. Great benefit," he said.

Adelaide Zoo has long marketed other animals' droppings and will now add them to those from the giant pandas to boost the nutritional value.

There are other ways to turn the dung into treasure too:

In Thailand, panda poo is used to produce paper.

In Chengdu in China, where Wang Wang and Funi were from, they even turn the droppings into statues.

And they are not as 'on the nose' as might be expected.

"The oils in the bamboo are released and if you crumble up a fresh piece of panda poo I think it's quite a sweet smell," Mr West said.

The marketing opportunities pandas provide are nothing to sneeze at.

The Zoo has the copyright on the names Wang Wang and Funi and cartoon images of the pandas.

Proceeds from official merchandise will go towards conservation efforts.

Adelaide already has a broad range of official products available but has some way to go to match overseas zoos, which market everything from panda-branded food and drink to cigarettes.

The sweet smell of success.


Angus

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