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....
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.
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.....
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....
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.
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.
And finally:
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.....
And today’s thought:
No wonder we are doing so well Olympics.
Angus
