Dead mouse in Downing Street: Fishy Skunk shooting: Valley of balls: Koala crawl: Antibiotic sausages: and a Big racquet.

A bit of solar stuff, not a lot of atmospheric movement and a lack of warm stuff at the Castle this morn, the interweb thingy seems to have returned to its former state and apologies to those who have commented, I will catch up.

And apparently we have another few days of a different big sporty thing in the Smoke.

 

Up in the big empty black house that resides in Downing Street

Allegedly while U-Turn Cam is dahn in pastyland Larry the Downing Street cat has finally recorded a kill.

The No 10 spokesman quipped: "The only dead mouse in Downing Street is the one Larry caught this morning."

 

Sod it! I thought it was the other rodent....

 

Over the hurricane forming salty thing on the left

Authorities say a Central Texas woman aiming for a skunk accidentally shot her husband when the bullet ricocheted.

Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk says the husband was expected to be released Monday from a Houston hospital. Kirk says the accident happened Sunday night at the family's house near College Station. The husband was inside.

Kirk says the bullet ricocheted off a deck, went through the house's closed back door and struck the husband in the abdomen. Kirk says the bullet did not damage any vital organs.

The sheriff says the wife, who has a concealed handgun permit, came out of the home's detached garage and saw a skunk. Kirk says the woman fired a .45-caliber handgun at the animal but missed.

 

Yeah right....allegedly...

 

Right a lot to one of the Stan’s

Close to the town of Shetpe in Western Kazakhstan lies the Valley of Balls – or Torysh, as it is known in Kazakh. It consists of numerous ball-like rock formations strewn across a wide range of steppe land. The balls range in size from tiny marble-like rocks to huge boulders the size of a car.

The phenomenon is poorly researched, but there could be a number of geological explanations from megaspherulites - crystalline balls formed in volcanic ash and then revealed by weathering - to cannonball concretions - a process where sediment accumulates around a harder core - to spherical weathering wherein the conditions are just right to erode rocks into spherical form. In this case due to the range of sizes the most likely explanation is that of spherulite formation.

Visible from the Valley is Sherkala (Lion Rock), a stunning 332m white and ochre chalk outcrop with numerous fissures along its rim and even more rock formations at its foot. Close by are also the scant ruins of the Silk Road town Kyzylkala. 

Load of old megaspherulites?

 

Dahn Unda

An Amateur video captured a koala doing the crawl in the Tallebudgera Creek on the Gold Coast.

Koalas sleep for up to 16 hours a day and sightings of them swimming are extremely rare.

They are also known to drown if they fall in when drinking from swimming pools and are unable to climb out. Experts say it is possible the koala felt trapped on the bank of the tidal creek and decided the canoe was its best available escape route.

Local media said the stunned canoeists put the animal on an embankment at a local golf club where koalas were known to populate the gum trees.

 

Quite a lot like me then-except for the drinking from swimming pools and populating gum trees....

 

Back in the USA and other places

 

 

Antibiotic residues in uncured pepperoni or salami meat are potent enough to weaken helpful bacteria that processors add to acidify the sausage to make it safe for consumption, according to a study to be published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, on August 28.

Sausage manufacturers commonly inoculate sausage meat with lactic-acid-producing bacteria in an effort to control the fermentation process so that the final product is acidic enough to kill pathogens that might have existed in the raw meat. By killing the bacteria that produce lactic acid, antibiotic residues can allow pathogenic bacteria to proliferate.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and University College Cork, Ireland, found that antibiotic concentrations within limits set by US and European Union (EU) regulators are high enough to slow fermentation, the process that acidifies the sausages and helps destroy food borne pathogens like Salmonella or E. coli.

 

No more pizzas for me....

 

And finally:

 

Up to the Big Apple

 

New Yorker Ashrita Furman has just built a tennis racquet the size of a bus.

Furman, who holds the record for the most Guinness World Records at one time -- currently 151 -- hopes his mammoth wooden racquet will soon join the list.

The contraption is an exact copy of the wooden one used by Billie Jean King in the 1970s when she reigned over women's tennis at tournaments like the US Open that kicked off in New York this week.

The laminated wooden head, brown grip, red trim and inscriptions are a perfect match.

The only difference is that the racket measures 50 feet (15.2 meters) long and has a head 16 feet (4.9 meters) wide. The strings are made of water hose and the handle is so big that even a large person would have trouble wrapping both arms around it.

"It's 22.2 times bigger and done to scale," Furman told AFP.

 

Pity Tim Henman didn’t have one, he might have bleedin won something...

 

That’s it: I’m orf to get the tape measure out.

 

And today’s thought:

Gimme-Gimme I want the big racquet NOW!

 

 

Angus

Saturday Snippets

Slug pellet curry: Fag end fine; Stripy donkeys; Burnley scribble and a Tennis racquet



It seems that there will be weather all day today, at least that is what I am told, talking of weather; the sun seems to shine out of the lower orifice of Barak Obama, who has been awarded the Nobel peace prize for upping the number of troops in the Afghanistan war.

Odd that.





While up in London the git bags at the Department for work and pensions disability “service” have taken away ten year old Devon Taverner’s disability living allowance because she is coping too well with her prosthetic leg.

Read the story it will make you proud to be British.








First up:

Cat kidnap curry caper

A gay man has admitted he gave his lesbian neighbours curry laced with slug pellets after he was accused of kidnapping their three-legged cat.

According to the Daily Mail, Gary Stewart, 37, and Beverley Sales and Marie Walton had enjoyed cordial relations when they first became neighbours in Denton, Manchester. Over a period of years, though, things turned sour, leading Stewart to wage an "apparent hate campaign" against the couple.

He even allegedly "kidnapped" the pair's three-legged cat, Amber, and "dumped her in a village miles away". Amber was eventually recovered following a poster campaign.

On 22 September Stewart appeared to offer an olive branch in the form of curry, claiming he'd over-ordered from the takeaway. When Sales and Walton tucked in, they found the food laced with slug pellets. They called in the cops and Stewart was arrested.

He subsequently appeared before magistrates in Manchester where he "admitted attempting to poison the two women". He will appear again before the court at a later date.


Everybody needs good neighbours.

A puff too far

Over in Canada a truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday.

A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in south-western Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 (184 pound) ticket.

The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County.

"We enforce the legislation and this truck driver was in violation of that," she said.
($1=$1.04 Canadian)


Is it enclosed if the windows are open?

Oh no it isn’t

A zoo in Gaza has got around animal import restrictions by dyeing stripes on donkeys to make 'zebras'.

The owner of the Marah Land zoo in Gaza City said he had used masking tape and black hair dye, applied with a paint-brush, to disguise the white females.

Mohammed Bargouthi said it would have cost him more than £25,000 to bring in a real zebra via smuggling tunnels.

"The first time we used paint but it didn't look good," said Mr Bargouthi.

"The children don't know, so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new."

All the real animals at the zoo, including monkeys and a tigress, had been smuggled under the border at great expense, he said.

Two genuine zebras died of starvation earlier this year during the Israeli military offensive, he added.


The animal restrictions are part of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, imposed in an attempt to reduce rocket attacks and weaken the leadership of Hamas.



I’ve got a cat that is really a lion, any takers?

Burnley balls up

A town has spent £5,000 on a new logo which resembles a child’s crayon scribble.

The “visual expression” consisting of a computer-generated, three-dimensional image of dozens of multi-coloured, tangled circles is aim to revamp and improve Burnley’s image. And council bosses are so impressed with the design; they have paid an addition £400 to trademark the logo - preventing other towns from using it.

The design was produced by Burnley Vision Board after it secured a £300,000 grant from North West Development Agency (NWDA). The cash will be used to completely re-brand the Lancashire town.

Critics say the logo resembles a deformed insect, while others believe a three-year-old could have produced the same design.

Burnley Vision Board consists of representatives from organisations within the town, including the council, football club, college and various businesses. The different coloured circles in the emblem are intended to display different aspects of the town. The red bands represent the urban aspect of the town, while the green symbolises the rural areas.

Coun Gordon Birtwistle, leader of Burnley Council, believes it is money well spent, saying the logo signifies Burnley’s intertwining qualities. He said that the council had to act swiftly to trademark the logo as other towns were keen to use it.

A spokesman for Burnley Vision Board said a lot of effort and thought had gone into the logo’s design.

Last year, neighbour Blackburn spent £60,000 on a new logo which was almost identical to one promoting another town.

The council unveiled a heart-shaped letter “B” only to discover later that Barrow, in Cumbria, had the same design to promote the town.


Numptys.




And finally:

Two handled racquet

A unique new tennis racquet, which inventors say could revolutionise the game and even eliminate backhand for ambidextrous players, has been launched with two handles at the base.

Dann and Brian Battistone are both professional tennis players, but 36-year-old Brian and Dann, 34, are also ambidextrous.

Now with the help of the unique new type of racquet they may never have to play a backhand again.

American Brian said that for him the backhand might not be necessary anymore thanks to the new racquet.
Brian, who trains in Naples, Italy, said: "I've always been ambidextrous, like my little brother Dann, but we had difficulty in taking advantage of this on the court.
"I think this could revolutionise the sport.

"We met a racquet artisan called Lionel Burt who said he had just invented this special two-handled device for playing tennis.

"Aside from the possibility of always using the forehand, the easiest stroke by definition and also more classic, the basic reason for the invention was to suit players just like us.


Sort of defeats the object doesn’t it.



Angus

AnglishLit

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