Dark, damp and dismal again at the Castle this morn, after a fourteen hour day I sorted out all the broken whatnots in the study and my lovely young lady is coming to shear what is left of my head furniture.
Sad news today, I received an email from Sally in Norfolk this morn, my dear blogging friend Devonshire Dumpling (DD) of “No Clue” passed away in July, I will miss her writing, sense of humour and comments; life really is a bitch.
Last month physicists working at Cern near Geneva, where the LHC is based, announced bumps in their data that they said might have been the first signs of the elusive Higgs boson.
But announcing their latest results at a conference in Mumbai, India, the researchers said the signals had faded significantly after a new analysis, which was based on nearly twice as much data.
Guido Tonelli, spokesman for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector group at Cern, told The Guardian: "We see no striking evidence of anything that could resemble a discovery."
Sergio Bertolucci, Cern's research director, said on Monday: "Discoveries are almost assured within the next twelve months. If the Higgs exists, the LHC experiments will soon find it. If it does not, its absence will point the way to new physics.”
Nothing like hedging your bets.
That the squeeze on household budgets is choking Britain's fragile recovery.
Backbench Tory leaders are becoming increasingly jittery about the country's flat lining economy and fear it could cast a shadow over the party's annual conference in October. They are pressing the Chancellor to trail a go-for-growth package in his conference speech to counteract problems beyond his control in the euro zone and the United States.
Anxiety will be increased by a survey published today showing that fewer than half of Britain's 11 million low to middle-income earners have any money left over at the end of the month – another blow to hopes that the economy will pick up after the 0.2 per cent growth seen between April and June.
Tory MPs admit that increasing food and fuel prices and inflation running above pay rises are leaving many families with no spare money for goods and luxuries that could spur the recovery.
No shit...
Greek police have blown a hole in a ring of alleged crooks that had cornered the doughnut market in a beach resort.
It started with complaints that two Bulgarian men and a former Greek wrestling champion were using violence to choke off the trade by other doughnut vendors on Paliouri beach in the Halkidiki peninsula near Thessaloniki.
So an undercover officer posed as a doughnut seller, police said Tuesday, and he was attacked, leading to the arrest of the three aggressive doughnut sellers.
As a result, they have been charged with blackmail and fraud. They also were charged with food safety violations after police found they had stashed their product in an abandoned hotel that was open to the elements and used by bathers as a toilet.
No wonder Greece is so deep in the brown runny stuff.
Joshua Seto was rushed to hospital after shooting his phallus with a loaded pink pistol that was placed in his pants. .
Seto suffered the horrific yet bizarre injury in a supermarket car park when he attempted to pack fiancée Cara Christopher's gun in the front of his trousers.
The loaded pink pistol discharged as he approached a fast food restaurant and according to local police, the round 'passed through his penis and exited out the back of his left groin'.
Bet that stings...
The mayor of a northern Italian town announced a ban on shops selling kebabs and sandwiches from Saturday, saying he objected to their smell and complained they were not part of Italian tradition.
Massimo Botocci, a member of the populist Northern League and the mayor of Cittadella, near Padua, said such shops were banned from the centre of the medieval walled city.
This kind of food production was "not suited to our historic centre (because of) the way in which the foods are eaten, the smell they give off...” said Mr Botocci, citing health and sanitation regulations.
"If someone wants to eat a kebab, he can do it at home or outside of the historic centre," he said.
"They aren't part of our tradition."
Mr Botocci, who also sits as a deputy for the Northern League, made headlines in 2009 when he introduced measures against beggars and street sellers as well as parking restrictions for caravans to dissuade travelling people.
He has also proposed mandatory public service for under-16s found drinking alcohol.
Nice to see that democracy is alive and well in Italy.
And finally:
Bowen Orchid Society has been told that it needs bouncers on door of annual conference.
The Bowen Orchid Society had more than 200 people from across the country show up for the event in June.
Most of the attendees were of an age where pushing up the daisies was more likely to occur than an assault with a deadly petal.
Bowen Orchid Society member and former president Vince Smith said the group was shocked when they were told liquor licensing laws required them to hire some muscle.
"Most of them were like me, old and crippled," Mr Smith said.
Club treasurer Pat Tracey said she spoke with the local police and then contacted liquor licensing.
"We had to pick three people from our group to be designated security for the night. We were hardly hell raisers," she said.
The orchid conference organisers were also told they could only sell spirits and beer in cans, no glasses - a condition typical of a major race meet.
Queensland Hotels Association membership consultant Steve Aylward said the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation had adopted "a one-glove-fits-all approach".
"(OLGR) doesn't seem to recognise the difference between a Hells Angels' reunion and an orchid show," he said.
OLGR said each application was risk-assessed and considered on a case-by-case basis.
Applicants were encouraged to contact the office if they believed further consideration was needed.
Elfandsafety orchid.
Angus
