Private nukes: I can’t believe it’s not Alzheimer's: the Art car museum: Indian rain dance: Whale of a pool: and illegal rain.

More than a lack of warm stuff, oodles of wet stuff and a whimsy of atmospheric movement at the Castle this morn, his Maj has the hump (again) because he has just had his flea/ticks and lice stuff and the smoke detector doo-dah decided to go orf at 1.10 of the am, after spending a while searching for the fire I went back to the four poster and it went orf again at 1.50. 2.35, 3.09 and 4.27, I hope they accept it as recycling as it is now in the blue bin....

Norf of the border

Allegedly the MoD has signed a 15-year contract with private contractors ABL Alliance to provide support for the Trident weapons system at HM Naval Base Clyde.

Under the new contract 149 MoD civilian posts will transfer to the alliance.

The jobs are in industrial and technical grades, warehousing and logistic support services, while supervisors and managers are also transferring.

Thirty-nine Royal Navy posts will also be seconded to the alliance, which comprises AWE plc, Babcock and Lockheed Martin UK Strategic Systems (LMUKSS).

The MoD said it decided in May 2011 that the most effective way to sustain the workforce in the future was to use an experienced supplier within the private sector.

The new arrangement is scheduled to start in January 2013, subject to the successful completion of a protection of employment consultation.

And my contribution to GCHQ-terrorist, nuclear bomb, al Qaeda, radiation and bye-bye.

West to the home of “movies” and the land of popcorn

According to ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology chronic exposure of workers in industry to a food flavouring ingredient used to produce the distinctive buttery flavour and aroma of microwave popcorn, margarines, snack foods, candy, baked goods, pet foods and other products the ingredient, diacetyl (DA), intensifies the damaging effects of an abnormal brain protein linked to Alzheimer's disease.

Robert Vince and colleagues Swati More and Ashish Vartak explain that DA has been the focus of much research recently because it is linked to respiratory and other problems in workers at microwave popcorn and food-flavouring factories. DA gives microwave popcorn its distinctive buttery taste and aroma. DA also forms naturally in fermented beverages such as beer, and gives some chardonnay wines a buttery taste.

Now why did I sit in front of this computer.....

Still in the place where the automobile is king

Comes the art car movement, which instead of a nice wash, polish and valet these artists armed with paint, glue, objects, and whatever else will stay stuck on a car that still needs to drive, the creators go to work.

Among the art car creations a favorite style is where one particular thing has been glued on the entirety of the car exterior such as cameras, corks, cd's, trophies and so on.

In Houston this art car culture is a deep part of the city. Growing out of a long Houston tradition of outsider art, in 1986, 11 art cars were exhibited alongside the Fruitmobile (the 'first' of the Houston art cars, made to be auctioned) at The Orange Show. By April, 1988 the Houston art car culture and art car parade was in full swing with the first official art car parade in the U.S. took place with a 40 car parade and was seen by over two thousand onlookers.

Among the “best” cars in the museum are Rex Rabbit a giant rabbit shaped car clutching a basket of eggs, Faith by David Best complete with water buffalo head in place of longhorns, and the giant roach shaped "Roachster."

My brain hurts....

East many, many, many miles to the land of no Leccy

Bangalore, the capital city of the Indian state Karnataka, is experiencing its worst drought in 42 years. Large parts of north and central Karnataka have recorded an almost 27 percent decline in rainfall.

So the local Gov has asked all 34,000 temples in the state to conduct special rituals for rain, priced at about 5,000 Indian rupees (Rs.) each, the pujas will cost 170 million rupees (Rs. 17 crore, or nearly US$3.07 million) in total.

The state’s endowments ministry released the orders. Minister K.S. Poojari clarified that the money is to fund the rituals — to propitiate the rain gods.

Churches and mosques in the area were also asked to hold special prayers for rain. The BJP government of Jagadish Shettar requested that the prayers be conducted on July 27 and August 7.

Nice to see the sub continent has left the sixteenth century and finally entered the seventeenth.

 

Dahn Unda

The dead body of an 11m-long whale has been discovered in an open-air swimming pool in Australia.

Early morning swimmers discovered the humpback whale, which had been washed into the ocean pool in Sydney by heavy seas.

The 30-tonne young adult mammal was washed up at Newport Beach ending up in the man-made swimming baths which are filled with sea water.

The beach has now been closed due to the risk of sharks being attracted to the area by the rotting carcass.

The authorities are now deciding how best to remove the whale.

 Need a lot of chips for that....

And finally:

Back to the place where men are men and water is illegal

Gary Harrington, an Oregon man, will be spending a month in jail, after being convicted on nine misdemeanor charges. His crime is “Illegally” collecting rain water on his own property.

Harrington, who lives in Eagle Point, Oregon, has been fighting for the right to collect rain water since 2002.

Now a decade later, he has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1,500 for the man-made ponds he has built on his 170 acres of land. For filling “three illegal reservoirs” on his property with runoff water, Harrington has been convicted on nine misdemeanor charges in Circuit Court.

According to authorities, Harrington broke the law by collecting natural rain water and snow runoff that landed on his property. Harrington said he stores the water mainly for fire protection.

According to officials with the Medford Water Commission, the water on Harrington’s property, whether it came from the sky or not, is considered a tributary of the nearby Crowfoot Creek. Thus it is subject to a 1925 law, giving Medford Water Commission full ownership and rights to the water.

Let’s hope they don’t hear about the moat then.....

That’s it: I’m orf to have a look for some giant damselflies

And today’s thought:

No wonder we are doing so well Olympics.

Angus

What’s up Doc: What’s his name goes gay: Swamp soccer: Penny Mortgage: Caged car: and the Radio controlled Model bramble ramble rescue.

Wet, cold and windy at the Castle this morn, it chucked it dahn most of the night and will apparently chuck it dahn for most of today. 

Oh to be in England now that Summers Gorn.....

All across the almost privatised NHS

It seems that one in five junior doctors are carrying out operations and procedures which are beyond their capabilities.

A ten-year-study tracking the training of junior doctors by the British Medical Association they were asked to look after complex patients, carry out procedures and make decisions that were beyond them.

One in five junior doctors who were in their first year of specialty training, three years after graduating, said they had been given tasks beyond the capabilities

Overall one in ten junior doctors said they have been faced with tasks that were beyond them.

One doctor said they were solely responsible at night in an emergency department all year, despite guidance saying this should not happen.

Another, training in dermatology, was responsible for out of hour’s duties in the stroke and spinal units of a hospital. The unnamed doctor said: "These are both highly specialised and not at all relevant to (my) job at the time. Only one morning's training given."

Another said they were dealing with 'very complex patients undergoing procedures' with 'very limited clinical experience and no senior support'.

I had suspicions of this some nine years ago, but no one listened, especially the ‘Orspital knobs.

What’s his name-the Deputy Prime Monster

Has apparently come out at last, and flew a rainbow coloured flag over his office in Whitehall for the first time on Friday, hailing a “new era" of gay pride.

The Deputy Prime Minister flew the flag - a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride - to coincide with London’s gay pride event this weekend was a “small but important emblem”.

After he called for churches and other religious premises to be allowed to host gay weddings thingy said he was delighted to be “flying this iconic flag in the heart of Whitehall”. 

I had my suspicions a few years ago but no one listened, especially the other Eton chap.....

East to the place where the last dry Olympics took place

After the European footy thingy the swamp soccer tournament has begun.

More than 32 teams entered the mud competition, currently in its second year, held in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

Playing in a 25m x 15m swamp, the mud-lovers compete in 30-minute games consisting of two 12-minute halves, sandwiched between a six-minute half-time break.

With no offside rule or penalty spot, there's bound to be a few swamp competitors playing dirty, as well as a few tough tackles inside the area.

Swamp soccer is thought to have started in north-east England as a fitness exercise for soldiers.

The first official organised game took place in Finland in the late 1990s, with the craze later sweeping across the globe from the UK to Brazil.

There are currently an estimated 260 registered swamp soccer teams around the globe.

 

Maybe they could start one at Silverstone this weekend or the Olympics.

West to the home of the Prime and the land of the Toxic

A Massachusetts man who pledged to make the last mortgage payment on his home with pennies has fulfilled that promise.

After warning his bank, Thomas Daigle dropped off about 62,000 pennies weighing 800 pounds in two boxes for the final payment on the Milford home he and his wife, Sandra, bought in 1977.

He tells The Milford Daily News he just wanted to make his last payment on April 24 "memorable."

He started saving his pennies when he moved in.

The optician says his wife laughed whenever he would pick up a penny he found on the ground and say it was going to the mortgage.

Daigle says he's just glad to have the coins out of his house.

Penny for your thoughts?

East about as many miles to its first service

A zoo in central Russia has put a caged car on display next to pumas and iguanas.

In the zoo in Lipetsk region, the cage holding the BMW sedan was adorned with a board reading "Yezdun", a made-up Russian word implying "very bad driving", according to the Gorod48.ru website.

"I drive. I don't think. I can't," the placard reads.

The stunt was to promote an international campaign for safe driving, in which the Lipetsk region is taking part, police said.

"A flagrant traffic offender is more dangerous than any beast," a police spokesman said.

Around 300 people are killed and a further 2,500 crippled every year on the roads of the region, which has a population of 1.2 million.

And all the visitors to the Zoo arrived by........?

And finally:

Back in amateur Blighty

And dahn in Devon; a model aeroplane enthusiast who had to be airlifted from a bramble bush has insisted his rescue was not a waste of public money.

Marcus Wilde had been flying a model aircraft near the Morte Point beauty spot at Woolacombe, Devon, when the plane crash-landed in the bush.

He started his hunt in a patch of soft bracken while being guided by a friend looking down from a slope above him.

However Mr Wilde could not see a 15ft drop in front of him and tumbled down the bank into the two-metre deep bramble patch.

He said "I was completely stuck upside down and covered in cuts. My clothes were ripped to pieces. The more I struggled, the worse it got.

He remained stuck upside down in the bush for more than an hour before the rescue helicopter came to his aid.

He said he was "angry and annoyed" with people who had labelled the rescue a waste of public money.

"This was not a trivial situation and I have found some of the comments against me very offensive."

Twat...

That’s it: I’m orf to get some new legs

And today’s thought:

Submersible Silverstone

Angus

SATURDAY SNIPPETS

I am late posting today because it rained yesterday and BT, crap that it is, is unable to maintain my internet connection (again), and Microsoft is SHIT, because it managed to download an “update” that has ballsed up my logon, so that I can only access the “administrator” user instead of my own logon, and won’t let me delete the “new” administrator logon it created just to annoy, which it has.

Anyway:

Up first is the news on those ugly little smart cars with a 12ft mast topped with a “zoom” camera in Manchester to catch those of us that driving “while distracted” by doing things such as tuning the radio, eating, or driving “without due care and attention” BBC NEWS.

I agree that speeding or using a mobile phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt is dangerous and should be “punished” but what next-picking your nose at a traffic light, or perhaps talking to a passenger or maybe screaming at the kids fighting in the back will be considered a crime by the SS Traffic Police, we already have more than enough speed cameras, and traffic patrols are there to nick the “phoners” and seat belt avoiders, so why are the Police, who are there to catch criminals and protect us from danger using zoom cameras to see what we do in the privacy of our cars.

And the worst bit is that you are not told about it at the time, but the fine comes through the post.

It seems the time is upon us when the final private space we have-our vehicles is no longer sacrosanct, the only way to avoid being fined is to not have any passengers, tune the radio before we set out, don’t put the kids in the cars, have something to eat and drink before getting into our cars blow your nose before you set out and don’t take your eyes off the road to wonder what those ugly little smart cars with a 12 ft mast on top with a zoom camera are doing.




From the The Register The BBC has been fined £150,000 over the Manuelgate scandal, Ofcom has confirmed.

On 18 October last year, Radio 2 broadcast a show featuring Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in which they rang actor Andrew Sachs and left messages on his ansafone which boasted that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers vet's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

On 18 October last year, Radio 2 broadcast a show featuring Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in which they rang actor Andrew Sachs and left messages on his ansafone which boasted that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers vet's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

The full adjudication can be found here (pdf)


Errr, excuse me but who has been fined? The money comes from our license fee, why not fine Brand and “Woss” they are the cause of it.





From the The Sun Googles street view is causing more than concerns about privacy,

A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed — on Google.

The nine silver spheres hover above a row of shops, including Coral bookies, on the internet giant’s new Street View service.

Sun reader Faye Sharpe, 18, discovered them while viewing her neighbourhood of Wolverley Street in Bethnal Green, East London.

Faye said: “I was checking out the road to see if I could spot my mates. I thought it looked very strange and zoomed in.

Take a look UFO fleet menaces east London they certainly aren’t weather balloons.




Another tale about BT my favourite telecom company- The Register NHS Connecting for Health has agreed that BT will take responsibility for the Cerner Millennium installations at eight acute trusts in the south of England.

The NHS National Programme for IT has lacked a local service provider in the south of England since CfH fired Fujitsu in May 2008.

"BT can confirm it has signed a contract to take over the running of IT systems at eight acute trusts in the south of England as part of its NHS national programme work," said the company.

"This takeover was not unexpected," said Victor Almeida, a senior analyst at Kable. "BT is currently implementing a version of Cerner in the London cluster and thus is best positioned to run the sites.

"The big question is what will happen to the remaining trusts in the South, "he added. "Will they opt for BT, will they resort to Lorenzo software provided by the CSC Alliance in the North, where there are several out-of-cluster agreements within the NPfIT, or will they wait for offers from new software suppliers?"

Who cares? If it rains it won’t work anyway.

And finally:

Whatever you do DON’T read this: Bloggers could squeak out of court reporting restrictions it seems that bloggers might be able to escape reporting restrictions on sensitive court cases because they have not been informed of the restrictions.

An ongoing case about a boy said to have fathered a child at 12 years of age has highlighted the issue.

Reporting on that case has been restricted but foreign news outlets have carried stories about it, with versions of those stories appearing on websites accessible from the UK.

Some bloggers have picked up the stories and may be within their rights to publish while national newspapers cannot. The court order imposing the reporting restrictions says that it only applies to people who know about the restriction.

There is no central database of reporting restrictions, so while newspapers are informed of restrictions, bloggers generally are not, opening a legal loophole for their possible publishing of restricted information.


You didn’t read it did you? Good because ignorance is bliss, or blogs.



"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon’s razor


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE