SATURDAY SNIPPETS

First up: An Australian politician had her legs broken and stretched to become 3in taller in a bid to be taken seriously.

After nine months of excruciating pain, Hajnal Ban, 31, a councillor with Logan city council in Queensland, became a 'normal' 5ft 4in.

So she paid the Ilizarov orthopaedic clinic in Kurgan, Russia, £19,000 to break both legs in four places and stretch them slowly for 1mm every day for nine months.

She said she did not want to be remembered as "the girl who got her legs lengthened".

"I want people to take me seriously and to be known for the work I do as a politician in my local community," she said.


Blown that then haven’t you.

I love this one, it reminds me of……….ME

Real life Victor Meldrew jailed A real-life Victor Meldrew has clocked up 230 court appearances in a series of rows with bureaucrats and petty officials in Germany.

Retired teacher Dieter Koehler, 73, was this week jailed for two weeks for swearing at magistrates 66 times while fighting a court case about an earlier spat.

The grumpy pensioner - who quit teaching because he couldn't stand children - has broken all legal records in Germany where his fights with officialdom have turned him into a local hero in Hamburg.

I don’t believe it!

It’s a rock!

'Alien skull' spotted on Mars At first glance it looks like a rocky desert - but this image of the Mars landscape has got space-gazers talking.

An oddly shaped space boulder appears to show eye sockets and a nose leading to speculation it might be a Martian skull.

Previous images of a skull spotted on Mars in 2006 were believed to have been the result of tampering.

The famous Face on Mars, snapped by the Viking 1 spacecraft in 1976, which showed the shadowy likeness of a human face was late, was found to be a trick of the light when the area was re-photographed in 1998.

Softly, softly invite burglars.

Police officers use megaphones to alert residents if doors and windows open Officers have also been instructed to go into unlocked properties and alert homeowners to the security risk - even to the point of waking them up if they are asleep.

It is all part of a scheme that will see them patrolling the streets with the megaphones, shouting at homeowners to ensure their properties are properly protected.

Insp Mike Grady said: "Sadly, a good proportion of burglaries in this county take place at homes that have been left insecure.

Yes and now all the criminals in the area know where to go, obviously from the Iain Paisley school of communication.

And continuing with the police theme Police officer attacked by her own dog after being shot by robber Police dog handler Katie Johnson confronted gunman Wayne McDonald and his accomplice David Tyrell after receiving an emergency call over an armed robbery at a pub.

When McDonald blasted her in the leg with a shotgun, she set her dog Chaos on him, believing that he would save the day.

However, instead of jumping on the robber, Chaos bit WPC Johnson on the arm, allowing McDonald, 47, and Tyrell, 39 to flee the scene in Preston, Lancs.

WPC Johnson, who had only been paired with Chaos for three weeks when the incident happened, said: "I don't blame Chaos at all, dogs are dogs and not robots.

"They react to things they're trained to deal with. We train police dogs to attack offenders who are holding a gun but when we train dogs, the offenders are offering verbal aggression."

Maybe they should change the training?

And finally:

What recession?
MoD builds Afghan village in Norfolk The MoD has spent £14million building a replica Middle East settlement at Bridge Carr in the Stanford Training Area, near Thetford.

Houses are arranged around a traditional courtyard and vegetable patch and the village is populated by volunteers dressed as insurgents in traditional Taliban robes.

Islamic calls to prayer ring out from the mosque and the dusty streets are strewn with motorbikes, tyres and carts.

The smell of food cooked by the villagers wafts through the streets and synthetic aromas, such as rotten meat, are pumped out.

Designed to re-create conditions in Afghanistan, the village has been built on a 30,000 acre live fire site which covers two per cent of Norfolk.

The area was originally a replica Nazi village built in 1942 and has previously been transformed to resemble settlements in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.

Every British soldier sent to Afghanistan - an estimated 11,000 a year - will train at the facility.

Do they get much rain in Afghanistan then?

“Remember, anyone can juggle for a second.” John Alexandro King

Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Saturday Snippets

Fingers crossed; first up is: out of this world A police officer in Scotland has confessed to following the Jedi faith beloved of Star Wars film fans, respected policing analysis group Jane's reported Thursday

Pam Fleming, a 45-year-old beat officer in Glasgow for Strathclyde Police, said that she thought all police officers "should be Jedi’s," when interviewed by Jane's Police Review.
"For me, it is not a joke," she said. "Being a Jedi is a way of life.

"I love the Star Wars films and the concept of being a Jedi, that the faith is not divisive."
Fleming said she knew of other Jedi’s in Strathclyde Police -- the force apparently has eight in total.

According to Britain's Office for National Statistics, a total of 390,000 people in England and Wales listed their religion as Jedi in the most recent census in 2001. Scotland has a reported 14,000 followers.



That gives me a real feeling of security.



The force wasn’t with this guy!

Yahoo! News UK A British pensioner on a mobility scooter took a wrong turn and ended up driving along a motorway with a 70 mile (113 kilometre) per hour speed limit, prompting a police escort home

Police received telephone calls from concerned drivers after seeing the 89-year-old travelling along the M20 at Cheriton in Kent in southeast England.

"Kent Police received reports that a mobility scooter was travelling on the hard shoulder of the M20 on the London-bound carriageway," a spokeswoman said.

"An 89-year-old local man had taken the wrong turning and had travelled by mistake on to the M20."

The incident on Tuesday comes after a 90-year-old man on his scooter was assisted off a busy road in February.

The pensioner had taken a wrong turn onto a carriageway while out shopping near Shoreham in West Sussex in southern England.

"He said he had gone out to buy a newspaper. Somehow he must have got on to the roundabout and taken the wrong road," said a driver, who waved down the pensioner, before police arrived to help him home.



Wonder what newspaper he went out for?




Ananova Birmingham Council officials want to illuminate spaghetti junction to turn it into a landmark as part of a £6 billion makeover of the city.
Clive Dutton, director of planning at Birmingham City Council, said: "It is an extraordinary structure, one that is known around the country, but we feel as though it can have a massive impact around the world.
"It's an ambitious project, but what a thrill it would be to think that astronauts in space would be able to look down on earth and spot Spaghetti Junction glowing at night."
Spaghetti Junction was opened in 1972. It links the M6, Aston Expressway, A38 and A5127 above two railway lines, three canals and two rivers.


I suppose it will give drivers a nice view as they go round and round trying to find their way of the bloody thing.




My kind of café:


Yahoo! News UK Fatigued Finns in the western city of Turku can now escape pressures at home or stress at work at a cafe catering to those who like to catnap.

The brainchild of Turku's new 'nap' cafe is Jeremy Mast, a Frenchman who has been living in Finland since 2006 -- and was searching for a place to rest his head a couple of years ago.

"The idea came to me in a restaurant when I felt a bit sleepy after a meal," he told AFP.
"I thought it would be so nice to have place (for resting) and I started to think what it could be like."
After finding people liked his idea, Mast opened Naphouse in January after securing funding from the European Union's youth culture budget -- the cafe also doubles as an art gallery and an activities workshop for young people.

Customers seeking sleep or relaxation are given slippers, a pillow, a blanket and even a teddy bear before entering the blue coloured nap room, which has bean bags and doughnut-shaped mattresses on the floor.


I think they have had one of these in the Houses of Parliament for years.



And finally:

'Basil Fawlty' Motel Bans An Entire Town A motel in New Zealand, which is run by a man nicknamed Basil Fawlty, has taken the unusual step of banning an entire town, including its MP.

Owner Steve Donnelly and manager Malcolm Glen said they made the decision after becoming fed up with the rowdy behaviour of sports teams from Wainuiomata.
All 17,000 people from the town have now been banned indefinitely from the Supreme Motor Lodge in Palmerston North.

Australian Donnelly said: "Having had about 100 people from there over the last couple of years and maybe one that we liked... it is not worth it."

"We would do the same to anyone who causes us that level of stress," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.

Scottish manager Glen is known as Basil Fawlty after the highly strung John Cleese TV character.

When Wainuiomata's Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister Trevor Mallard tested the ban by trying to book in, Mr Glen gave him his marching orders.
He told the New Zealand legislator: "As a Scotsman I don't have a vote, it doesn't matter to me, you're banned."


See you Jimmy!


"Every exit is an entry somewhere." Tom Stoppard


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

THE ANSWER TO YESTERDAYS POST

The answer to Superintendent David Hartson’s comments yesterday has appeared-Thousands of police to lose jobs as forces feel the pinch large numbers of police forces are planning to cut thousands of officers despite the threat of a recession-driven surge in crime and disorder.

Representatives from dozens of police forces contacted by The Times last night gave a grim picture of falling numbers and “significant and painful” cuts.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “Jacqui Smith warned that crime could rise during a recession. If the Home Office is not careful, it will find itself sleepwalking into a crimewave.”

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This has to be the final nail in the coffin of Tony Blair’s promise that Labour would be tough on crime. We already have many violent crimes rocketing and crimes like burglaries on the rise again.”

I am with the “pro” camp we need more police, especially on the street, but the way to gain public support isn’t really to try to scare us, but to appeal to our intelligence and common sense.

David Hartson has it seems tried to exaggerate hypothetical problems in order to secure the jobs of police “persons”, all he had to do was tell the truth and ask for support, and he would have got it.

“Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.” Miguel de Servantes


Angus


NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

SUMMER OF RAGE OR JUST SCARE MONGERING?

Superintendent David Hartshorn (Paul Lewis, The Guardian) Britain's most senior police officer with responsibility for public order raised the spectre of a return of the riots of the 1980s, with people who have lost their jobs, homes or savings becoming "footsoldiers" in a wave of potentially violent mass protests.

He said that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, had become "viable targets". So too had the headquarters of multinational companies and other financial institutions in the City which are being blamed for the financial crisis.

And cited the Riots in Greece and France, as well as the “wildcat” strikes by refinery workers as the basis for his “armageddon” statement.

And said that “middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.”

Hartshorn said he also expected large-scale demonstrations this year on environmental issues, with hardcore green activists "joining forces" with middle-class campaigners over issues such as airport expansion at Heathrow and Stansted. With the prospect of angry demonstrations against the economy, that could open the door to powerful coalitions.

Well: what can you say?

It seems to me that Mr Hartshorn is giving some nice ideas to the “rebels”, the thought of “middle class campaigners” taking to the streets is hardly something that will make us quake in our boots, but it may be enough to procure more funding for the Police forces, and give a reason for inappropriate action by the said police if anyone has the temerity to actually protest about the abysmal state of our green and pleasant land.

Don’t get me wrong I am on the side of law and order, but trying to scare the pants off ordinary Brits isn’t the way to make the “Powers that be” more acceptable in our eyes.

And to be honest who has the time or the inclination to “invade” the streets and produce a “Summer of Rage”

“The public good is in nothing more essentially interested than in the protection of every individual's private rights.” William Blackstone

Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

ROBBIE POWELL

This a short second post, I try not to inflict misery on readers, because life is hard enough as it is.

But if you could, take a look at my post on NHS: ROBBIE POWELL WOULD BE 29 THIS YEAR

It is not the nicest story, in fact it is horrendous. But it really is worth perusing, it gave me a huge reality check, and although it happened 18 years ago, the agony of the parents is still there.

Thanks.

Angus

No Cars today

Sorry but there will not be any “old” cars today.










It’s me, tomorrow would have been “our” 37th Wedding anniversary, as you may know “Mrs Angus” is no longer with us, and thinking about the times we had on our travels is too painful.

And just to cheer you up even more there will be no blog tomorrow, you will be able to have a rest from my inane ramblings for 24 hours.

But don’t get too used to it, I will be back in full flow on Tuesday.

So, instead of cars, today I will spout about “odds and sods”.

This is from Kablnews

Lib Dems call for new NHS data security rules

After a year or so the Lib Dems are calling for new NHS data security rules, there are two things to think about, why has it taken them so long to make a noise about this subject, and, they haven’t got a hope in hell of the Gov listening.

The loss of data in the NHS is now on a scale that dwarfs the loss of common sense in her MAJ’s Gov.

They are incapable of stemming the tide of disappearing information on US, because no matter how sophisticated the Computer systems are, no matter how good the firewalls are, no matter how up to date the anti-virus is, the data is processed by people, they are not being hacked, but they are “losing” physical devices-CDs, Data Sticks and Computers.

What needs upgrading is the brains of the people handling these devices, they must be taught not to leave the bloody things in Pub car parks, on Trains, in Toilets or any other place they are going to, in fact they must be made NOT to take the damn things out of the building. The useless pillocks.

And talking of Pillocks-from the Register is this little gem about someone who really should know better. An Essex police officer who inadvertently forwarded an aged internet hoax is now dealing with hundreds of calls and emails from concerned women - the hoax looks more genuine now that it comes from a proper police address.

Detective Constable Simon Lofting sent the mail on to senior officers to check if it was genuine but it got forwarded on.

The story warned women not to accept business cards from strangers because they could be coated with "Burundanga" - which is "four times greater than date rape drug". The hoax mail first circulated in May this year, according to Snopes - one of several debunking sites which warn the story is false.

The name “Wooden Top” seems appropriate.


And finally from the BEEB Labour urged to overhaul benefits, not again, haven’t we just had an “overhaul” how many bloody times can you do the same things?

I think this is just a “cunning plan” to divert our attention away from the total balls up Labour has made with the economy.

More old cars next Sunday, I promise.

See you Tuesday.

Angus