This was a real nice swanbake,
We're mighty glad we came.
The vittles we et
Were good, you bet,
The company was the same.
Our hearts are warm, our bellies are full,
And we are feeling prime.
This was a real nice swanbake,
And we all had a real good time.

(With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein and Carousel)

SWAN BAKE: CARCASSES AND PILES OF FEATHERS FOUND NEXT TO COOKING POTS AT MIGRANTS' CAMP

Carcasses from dead swans, broken up and stripped for food, have been discovered in a camp used by East European immigrants, according to reports.

Anglers and walkers spotted the sickening remains of the illegally slaughtered royal birds beside the River Lea in east London.

One swan had had the wings snapped from its back, while other bones lay near to a tent and cooking utensils.

Thousands of feathers were also scattered around the dirty camp, which is now being investigated by the RSPCA.

Immigrants apparently live there in makeshift tents, on land which is part of the 2012 Olympics site, as they try to find somewhere else to live.

Angler David Gibson, 42, revealed how he saw a pile of swan wings in the camp on Tuesday.

He said: "It's vile. You could see where they'd snapped off the wings and plucked them before cooking.

"These swans belong to the Queen and for someone to come here and butcher them is a disgrace.

"It makes me sick to my stomach. I have heard it is mostly Eastern Europeans who are camping here until they can get a house," she told The Sun.

David Akinsanya, who keeps a boat on the river, said: "In their countries, it may be acceptable to live off the land but people should understand that here they cannot just take and eat swans."

Swan used to be regarded as a delicacy but feasting on the bird died out in Britain a century ago.

Under an ancient charter, they are officially owned by the Queen and killing them is now punishable by six months in jail and a £5,000 fine.

Three tents remained in the camp on Wednesday. Two young Poles living there refused to come out and speak to reporters but denied taking the swans.

A Romanian bible and cooking equipment could be seen outside another tent, while putrid food and thousands of feathers were nearby the third.

Police have pledged to send officers into the camp regularly to ensure they are not breaking the law and killing swans.

The RSPCA are also investigating. A spokesman said: "We treat this very seriously. We ask anyone with information to come forward."

The discovery comes six months after it was revealed that Polish and Lithuanian immigrants in Bedfordshire appeared to be killing swans for food.

They were spotted trying to drag the 20lb birds away from the Grand Union Canal, while remains of butchered swans were found on the towpath in Leighton Buzzard.

Hundreds of swans were thought to have disappeared from the area, prompting the local angling club to erect a sign reminding people they are protected by law.

(From the Daily Mail)

CHILDREN - WHAT HAPPENED TO GIVING UP YOUR SEAT FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE ON THE TRAIN?

Health and safety, that's what!

From The Times
February 27, 2008

Benedict Nightingale writes:

Recently I stumbled into a Tube train at Westminster on the Jubilee Line, to be greeted by an odd sight. Quite a few adults, some of them obviously elderly, were standing up and clinging to the straps, struts and poles kindly provided by Transport for London, but almost every seat was occupied by a child aged maybe 8, 9 or 10. Even those marked out for old or disabled people were occupied by kids neatly dressed in school uniform.

One of the few adults still seated got up to leave the carriage at Waterloo and one of the few standing children was rushed into her place by a woman who was evidently a teacher. Nearby was a woman of perhaps 70 who looked as if she could do with a rest but clearly wasn't going to get it. She and I gave each other a seen-it-all sort of look. But that changed nothing.

I can't say I could stand no more, because even if I had been 90 and one-legged I would clearly have been left upright by this Lilliputian brigade. But in another sense I couldn't stand it. After all, I was brought up to give my seat to older people. I once made my elder son get up for a foreign woman, who proceeded to put him in a dire state of teenage embarrassment by bowing and saying: “And now I have met ze English gentleman.” I know my grandson does what was once thought the polite, decent thing.

But not this lot. So I asked the teacher why. She looked flustered and hurried away to fetch a male colleague who, like her, was standing. Well, why? “It's Health and Safety,” he explained. But suppose the carriage had been packed when the children got on? Wouldn't they have had to stand? “Yes,” he agreed. “So isn't it illogical to insist on them sitting now?” “Health and Safety isn't very logical,” he said.

Now, I'm prepared to believe anything of an outfit that fusses about the mortal perils of conkers and waterwings. It wouldn't surprise me if the Health and Safety Executive ordered the mass extraction of the nation's teeth, so as to stop us biting our tongues. But what's the message being given to our children? Think of yourselves first. Use any excuse to ensure your own comfort. Don't bother with consideration for others. I looked at those quiet, nice tots and thought that they were being encouraged to become the sort of boors who push their way through crowded trains and on to seats, elbowing invalids out of the way.

Well, I should have said that to that schoolteacher. And he should have given his children a practical lesson in civics by forcing them to their feet. But neither of us did. I got off at London Bridge and he and his charges went on to see Tutankhamun.

Would they, I wondered, have stood if some wizened old Pharaoh had clattered their way, like the mummy in the Conan Doyle story? No, Health and Safety would have forbidden it.

Have you ever "slept in"? It is an Americanism and I NEVER use it. What is wrong with the English expression "I overslept"?

It is the same with "Train Station" (American). The English is "Railway Station".

Similarly, it is "I met" and not "I met with".

Yes, I know I am pedantic - but I live in England.

By coincidence the Economist has published this today:

AMERICANISMS

Other Americanisms are euphemistic or obscure (so avoid affirmative action, rookies, end runs, stand-offs, point men, ball games and almost all other American sporting terms). Do not write meet with or outside of: outside America, nowadays, you just meet people. Do not figure out if you can work out. To deliver on a promise means to keep it. A parking lot is a car park. Use senior rather than ranking, rumpus rather than ruckus,and rumbustious rather than rambunctious.

That is just an extract. If you are interested, you can read the full article at:

http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=673931

Today I am back on one of my favourite hobby-horses - "Global Warming".

Read on - and remember you may have already been indoctrinated by false information disseminated for several years in this country and America. Some Governments have only appointed scientists and advisers who they know will support their pre-conceived ideas; very few are independent and open-minded.

EVEN THE WARMISTS CAN FEEL THIS CHILL

Last week Jerusalem had its second snowfall in a month. Astonished Athenians looked up at a snow-draped Acropolis, as more than 200 villages in Greece and Crete were cut off by blizzards. In Turkey the number of villages cut off was estimated at 1,000.

Further heavy snows across southern China added to the disaster which had already damaged 10 per cent of the country's forests and several thousand square miles of farmland, and is likely to cost the Chinese economy £10 billion.

I make no apology for returning to the unaccustomed snowfalls of the past six weeks across the northern hemisphere. Not just because they deserved more attention than they got, but because of their possible political implications when measures to "combat global warming" threaten to impose astronomic costs on the world economy.

There have been two aspects to this winter's freak weather. One has been simply the scale of these snowfalls and the fact that they affected parts of the world where snow has not been seen for decades, such as Saudi Arabia and the deserts of Iran.

More thought-provoking, however, has been the scientific data showing just how abnormal this winter's cooling has been. According to Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, we experienced the sharpest January-to-January global temperature drop - three quarters of a degree Celsius - since records began in 1880.

Temperatures were lower than their 20th century average for the first time since 1982. Snow cover in the northern hemisphere was at its greatest extent since 1966. At the other end of the world, Antarctic ice-cover was at its most extensive since satellite records began in 1979, 30 per cent above the January average (see such websites as the US National Climate Data Center, Cryosphere Today and Watt's Up With That).

It may be too early to draw conclusions as to what this says about changing climate patterns, but the fact remains that such drastic cooling hardly accords with classic global warming theory, that rising CO2 must mean rising temperatures. Certainly nothing on this scale was predicted by those scientific bodies on which the world's politicians have been relying for their belief that global warming was the most serious challenge facing the planet.

At New Year, one such body, the University of East Anglia's Hadley Centre, predicted that, although 2008 would be cooler than some recent years, it would still be one of the 10 hottest years in history, and that any cooling would only "mask the underlying warming trend".

Seven weeks later it is clear that the cooling has gone much further than that, according better with the predictions of that growing body of scientists who argue that climate change is caused less by CO2 emissions than by magnetic activity on the Sun. They point to the abnormally low present sunspot level, of a type associated with severe cooling in the past, such as in the Little Ice Age between the 17th and early 19th centuries.

The political significance of all this, of course, is that our leaders are committing us to a range of measures whose economic effects will be without precedent, from their astronomically costly "carbon trading" schemes to their determination to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on wind turbines.

The most respected economist in this field, Yale's Professor William Nordhaus, estimates that the cost of the measures proposed by Al Gore would be $34 trillion (£17 trillion) - all resting on the belief that, unless we spend such sums, world temperatures are doomed to rise. The events of the first two months of 2008 may lead us to wonder whether these people really know what they are doing.

(The Sunday Telegraph)

Quite! It was only a few months ago that the media were saying "Global Warming: There is no denying that it is happening. The question is Why?"

TUBE BAN FOR 'FAT CHRIST' POSTER

A promotional poster, which shows a man in pink boxer-shorts being crucified, has been banned from the Tube.

Transport for London (TfL) said the advert for the play 'Fat Christ', which opens this week at the King's Head. Islington, north London, was offensive.

TfL said the advertisement would break its commitment to avoid adverts likely to offend some members of society.

Writer Gavin Davis said sensitivities could be found on "many images" on the underground and in the media.

The play was based, in part, on a person who auditioned for the play 'Jesus Christ Super Star' and was told he was too fat to be given the part.

Mr Davis said that while he understood the image could be sensitive, in this case it portrayed the play.

"Part of the subject matter of the play is that the lead character creates a painting of the modern crucifixion... as a symbolism of all religions and the parallels and sensitivities that they have got," he said.

A TfL spokesman said: "Millions of people travel on the London Underground each day and they have no choice but to view whatever adverts are posted there.

"We have to take account of every passenger and endeavour not to cause offence in the advertising we display."

(BBC)

Further details at: http://fatchrist.com/ and http://fatchrist.com/contact.html

P.S. I don't know why 40 days in the wilderness has been changed to 40 years. Perhaps it is the whole life of the character?

Phone numbers and credit card data to be collected under expanded EU plan

Airline passengers will be monitored at every stage of their journey under the proposals.

Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects.

Brussels officials are already considering controversial anti-terror plans that would collect up to 19 pieces of information on every air passenger entering or leaving the EU. Under a controversial agreement reached last summer with the US department of homeland security, the EU already supplies the same information [19 pieces] to Washington for all passengers flying between Europe and the US.

But Britain wants the system extended to sea and rail travel, to be applied to domestic flights and those between EU countries. According to a questionnaire circulated to all EU capitals by the European commission, the UK is the only country of 27 EU member states that wants the system used for "more general public policy purposes" besides fighting terrorism and organised crime.

The so-called passenger name record system, proposed by the commission and supported by most EU governments, has been denounced by civil libertarians and data protection officials as draconian and probably ineffective.

The scheme would work through national agencies collecting and processing the passenger data and then sharing it with other EU states. Britain also wants to be able to exchange the information with third parties outside the EU.

Officials in Brussels and in European capitals admit the proposed system represents a massive intrusion into European civil liberties, but insist it is a necessary part of a battery of new electronic surveillance measures being mooted in the interests of European security. These include proposals unveiled in Brussels last week for fingerprinting and collecting biometric information of all non-EU nationals entering or leaving the union.

All airlines would provide government agencies with 19 pieces of information on every passenger, including mobile phone number and credit card details. The system would work by "running the data against a combination of characteristics and behavioural patterns aimed at creating a risk assessment", according to the draft legislation.

"When a passenger fits within a certain risk assessment, he could be identified as a high-risk passenger."

A working party of European data protection officials described the proposal as "a further milestone towards a European surveillance society.

"The draft foresees the collection of a vast amount of personal data of all passengers flying into or out of the EU regardless of whether they are under suspicion or innocent travellers. These data will then be stored for a period of 13 years to allow for profiling. The profiling of all passengers envisaged by the current proposal might raise constitutional concerns in some member states."

The Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford said: "Where is this going to stop? There's no mature discussion of risk. As soon as you question something like this, you're soft on terrorism in the UK and in the EU."

Britain is pushing for a more comprehensive system based on the experience of a UK pilot scheme that has been running for the past three years. Officials say Operation Semaphore, monitoring flights from Pakistan and the Middle East, has been highly successful and has resulted in hundreds of arrests.

The scheme has seen one in every 2,200 passengers warranting further investigation, with a tenth of those "being of interest". British officials say rapists, drug smugglers and child traffickers have been arrested and want the EU scheme to cover "all fugitives from crown court justice".

(The Guardian)

I wonder how much of this information will be lost, stolen or abused?

Overweight: 24 per cent of women in Britain are classified as obese

A "fat tax" is to be imposed on the obese by life insurance firms, it emerged last night.

Around 50 per cent extra could be charged on new premiums - and the threshold at
which the higher rate starts will be lowered.

The increased charge can be up to 400 per cent if you fall into other high risk categories, such as being a smoker or having previous medical conditions.

For a 55-year-old man who is a healthy non-smoker with no weight problems, life insurance should cost about £1,000 a year for £150,000 of cover. If he were obese, the annual premium on a 25-year policy could cost an extra £500.

Britain is in an epidemic of obesity, which can lead to cancer, heart problems, liver disease and diabetes.

Nearly one in four adults and 16 per cent of children have weight problems that threaten their health.

Yesterday Britain's biggest life insurer, Legal & General, said 13 per cent of new applicants face paying the higher premiums - which start on anyone with a body mass index of 30.

A BMI of 30 or more is now one of the most common reasons for the price hike. The threshold used to be nearer 40 but has been lowered as the full scale of the obesity crisis has been revealed.

One problem is that judging people by their BMI could discriminate against the superfit - as rugby players or athletes often have a high weight-to-height ratio by building up the muscles required for their sport.

Other insurers also confirmed last night that they charge fat people at least 50 per cent extra.

At Norwich Union, the second largest life insurer, premiums start rising once the BMI hits 35.

Friends Provident, the third largest insurer, begins "loading" premiums when BMI is over 33.

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: "If you are obese, you are at greater risk of contracting certain diseases. It is just the same as increasing the premium for a smoker or somebody with previous medical conditions."

Matt Morris, a policy adviser at Life Search, a specialist financial adviser, said: "In an ideal world, insurers want the healthier clients. There is an element of cherry picking. They don't want the burden of the heavier clients."

Official figures revealed this week that a quarter of children are overweight before they have even started school. By secondary school entry of 11, the figures rises to one in three.

(Abridged from the Daily Mail)

Japan's version of Disney's Magic Kingdom is looking to tempt a new generation of visitors, wooing the nation's elderly as the nation's birth rate continues to plummet.

The company that operates Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea - a neighbouring amusement park that takes the ocean as its theme - have announced a new cut-price 12-month pass card for anyone aged 60 or older.

At ¥35,000 (£165), the new pass is a 22 per cent reduction on the regular one-day pass for adults.

Operator Oriental Land Co apparently has few concerns that Japanese grandparents will be put off by rides such as the "Tower of Terror" or Indiana Jones' "Temple of the Crystal Skull".

Japan has the largest proportion of elderly people in its population in the world, with close to 20 per cent of the nation's 127 million residents over 65.

(Abridged from the Telegraph)

Millions of motorists are likely to incur parking fines without realising it after being caught on CCTV.

From March 31, councils across England and Wales will have the power to use remote cameras to enforce parking laws, then send tickets by post.

Motoring groups said last night that the change will lead to a surge in the number of questionable tickets being issued, with drivers facing fines even when no offence has been committed.

The arrival of a ticket by post, sometimes weeks later, will also make it harder to collect evidence to mount a successful appeal.

Under the new plans, town hall staff in control rooms will monitor CCTV cameras trained on high streets to issue tickets the second a car parks on a yellow line or overstays at a parking meter.

(From the Telegraph)

British Gas has been accused of "taking customers for a ride" on the eve of an expected announcement of a sixfold increase in its profits to £640 million.

Despite a drop in the cost of wholesale gas, the company has raised prices to customers, enabling it to increase the profit it makes from each one to almost £40, compared with just under £6 a year before.

British Gas will announce its operating profits for 2007 tomorrow, but a report by analysts at Citigroup has predicted the figure for residential gas and electricity supply will be £638.7 million, compared with a profit of £95 million in 2006.

Ann Robinson, the director of consumer policy for price comparison website uSwitch.com, said: "British Gas is taking its customers for a ride. It has come bottom in recent surveys of customer service, yet it has put its prices up and massively increased its profits. It is very good at looking after shareholders but not at looking after its customers."

The cost of buying wholesale gas fell by 40 per cent in 2007, yet British Gas put up retail prices for gas and electricity by 15 per cent this year.

British Gas said: "We won't make any comment until the figures are released."

(Daily Telegraph)

DRIVERS TRAP CLAMPERS IN CAR PARK IN PAYBACK FOR TARGETING THEIR VEHICLES

Furious drivers turned the tables on clampers when they trapped them in a car park for three hours until they released eight cars which had been clamped.

Residents on a complex of newly built flats woke up to find two men busily putting wheel clamps on any cars which did not have a parking permit.

Angry drivers claimed they had received their permits in time and phoned up family and friends to drive over and block the entrance to the car park - so the clampers were stuck inside.

Vincent Martin 36, a taxi driver who lives in the exclusive complex in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, said: "I woke up at 8.30am and I heard a commotion going on so I threw some clothes on and went outside.

"I saw there were two men dressed in black in a van. They were really big, bald headed guys and looked really intimidating.

"They had clamped about seven or eight cars and the drivers were out there shouting and crying.

"Luckily I'd got my permit and already put it on but some people were saying they had not received theirs.

"People missed work and hospital appointments."

Signs dotted around the car park warn residents they face an £80 parking ticket or £125 clamp release fee if they do not display a permit while in an allocated residents' space.

Mr Martin said he had got several letters warning that enforcement action was starting but some residents claimed they had not received them.

He added: "When I went off to work there were cars blocking the entrance, they were determined not to let the clampers out.

"They were trapped there for three hours until they eventually took the wheel clamps off.

"The people certainly turned the tables on the clampers, it's one in the eye for the clampers."

Workers from London Parking Control clamped eight cars in an area for allocated residents' parking which is controlled by Ringley, an estate management company.

Some residents paid to have their cars released but others refused to hand over the £125 and drafted in help from their family and friends.

Five cars blockaded the arched entrance to the flats until after a tense five hour stand-off the management company backed down and called off the clampers.

A spokeswoman for the London Parking Control said: "We are still looking into the incident and liaising with our client Ringley."

Lisa Stiles, 29, said she was forced to pay the fine to get her four-month-old daughter Ella to Southend Hospital for a check-up for eczema.

She said: "It was very upsetting to pay all that money. I'm on my own and can't afford it."

In a letter to some residents Ringley said it decided to introduce the clamping measures because of "problems with car parking" on the estate, which was opened in May last year.

Scott O'Brien, 20, who was clamped said: "I'm disgusted. I was parked in my designated space and I didn't receive a letter or permit or anything.

A cheer went up among the parking protesters and the barrier of cars were moved to let the clampers out.

(From the Daily Mail)

Reading between the lines, I think there was a lack of communication - and also some car owners had just neglected to apply for a permit.

What is the difference between these two medicine cabinets?

The one on the left, a 'work of art' by Damien Hirst, sold in London for £350,000. The one on the right fetched £1

Damien Hirst's medicine cabinets have sold for millions and helped him become the world's most successful living artist.

In New York on Thursday 'Where There's a Will There's a Way', his steel pill cabinet, fetched $7.15 million (£3.6 million) at a star-studded charity auction.

A similar item last year sold for a record £9.6 million.

Now, however, an experiment by The Sunday Telegraph suggests that, without the name Damien Hirst attached, his "works of art" might sell for the decidedly more modest price of £1.

They set out to recreate 'Locanda Locatelli', described by Christie's as being composed of "glass, painted MDF, aluminium and drug packaging".

First they visited Plumline Bespoke Joinery in Nottingham, where a senior craftsman built a cabinet in three hours.

Craig Taylor, of Plumline, said: "We'd normally get a YTS trainee to knock up something like that."

The materials - chipboard, aluminium and glass - cost £84.23. Pharmaceuticals cost us a further £290.98, taking the total bill to £375.21.

It was then offered on eBay as 'Not Damien Hirst Medicine Cabinet', with the promise: "Have your own artwork, prepared with all the care of the original."

Yet the public seemed nonplussed. After 24 hours, £1 had been offered - which was as good as it got over the course of the five-day auction.

An email from "Claire" said: "Hi, I'm loving this piece. I work for Damien Hirst so we all thought this was very funny in the office. Let me know if you re-list it."

Alas, it was too late. 'Not Damien Hirst Medicine Cabinet' had been sold to the sole bidder, Neil, a 30-year-old London barrister. He said it would take pride of place in his bathroom. "I thought it was quite funny, and well executed. It makes you stop and think, at the very least that you never thought a medicine cabinet could look so appealing."

As for the real Hirst cabinets, he insisted: "It's something anyone could do, but the point is only he actually did it. The underlying ideas and work itself are fantastic, and you have to respect Hirst's marketing genius."

Did all this mean, then, that if others had bid, he might have gone up to, say, £1.20?

"I suspect not. £1 was the maximum, or very close to it."

'Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

THE PRACTICAL JOKE THAT LAUNCHED AN ARTISTIC REVOLUTION

Three men met for lunch in New York early in April 1917. They were the American painter Joseph Stella, Walter Arensberg, a wealthy collector later obsessed by the notion that Bacon wrote Shakespeare, and Marcel Duchamp.

After a convivial and talkative meal, they made their way to the JL Mott Ironworks, a plumbing suppliers situated at 118 Fifth Avenue.

Once there, Duchamp selected a "Bedfordshire" model porcelain urinal.

On returning to his studio he turned it through 90 degrees, so that it rested on its back, signed it, "R. MUTT 1917", and entitled this new work Fountain.

Thus was begun the existence of one of the most influential art works of the 20th century.

'Fountain' will be a crucial item in the forthcoming exhibition, 'Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia', at Tate Modern. Or at least a replica of it will, because one of the most piquant aspects of the history of this celebrated object is that the original was seen by only a handful of people, never publicly exhibited, and vanished shortly after that selection, signing and christening in 1917.

'Fountain' was many things, apart, obviously, from a mis-described piece of sanitary equipment. It was unexpectedly a rather beautiful object in its own right and a blindingly brilliant logical move, check-mating all conventional ideas about art.

But it was also a highly successful practical joke.

This image is the only remaining record of the original object. It was reproduced with an anonymous manifesto the following May in an avant-garde magazine called The Blind Man.

The accompanying text made a claim crucial to much later modern art: "Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object."
It was this publication as much as the initial scandal which made'Fountain' famous.

'Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia' is at Tate Modern, London SE1 (020 7887 8888), from Thursday.

(Abridged from the Daily Telegraph)

LET THEM DRINK PLAIN WATER - OR MILK

Tea and coffee could be restricted in schools to pupils over the age of 16 in plans to encourage a healthy diet.

It is an option being considered as part of a consultation exercise by the School Food Trust (SFT).

Teachers' unions say this is another example of official bodies meddling in areas where they should not interfere.

The SFT stresses it has no intention of issuing an outright ban on the traditional "British cuppa".

General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers Mick Brookes said such advice would cut into people's civil liberties.

He said: "Words fail me. I can understand the anxiety about young people eating appropriate food. But this nannying really has to end."

The SFT, a government body, has drawn up a draft code of practice for drinks provided in schools and is now canvassing public opinion on its contents.

The code, which is voluntary, is a best practice guide and gives clear advice to schools on which drinks they should provide, based on current regulations relating to school food.

It recommends that pupils drink plain water, milk, fruit and vegetable juice and plain soya, rice or oat drinks.

The draft code states that "hot tea, coffee and low calorie hot chocolate are allowed although their nutritional value is minimal".

(BBC)

COUNCIL'S £60,000 TO RELOCATE FOUR NEWTS

Legislation protecting an endangered species of newt is to be challenged after a council was forced to spend £60,000 ($120,000) moving four of the creatures.

Officials at Cheshire County Council are writing to the Government and European Union chiefs to challenge the rules governing great crested newts.

Councillor Barrie Hardern, who has written to Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, said the newts had to be given a new habitat as a part of a planning application for building work at Fallibroome High School in Macclesfield.

He said: "Around £15,000 per newt seems a ludicrous sum of money to me.

"They are a legally protected species under EU regulations because there are parts of Europe where they are quite rare.

"However, in Cheshire we have in the order of 16,000 ponds and newts are widespread and locally abundant.

"The EU regulations together with UK legislation carry substantial fines if we do not protect the newts as part of planning applications. I am very concerned about taxpayers' money being used in this way."

Great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) are Britain's largest newt species, they can live for 27 years and grow up to 17cm long.

They are black with orange or yellow bellies with black blotches, and can be found across northern Europe.

When great crested newts are encountered during a proposed development, they are caught by specialists either by fencing off a compound and using a torch to find them at night or by using pit fall traps. They are then relocated to safe areas.

There are estimated to be 400,000 great crested newts in the UK in 18,000 breeding sites.

(Daily Telegraph)

Wy not just let the schoolchildren catch them in a net and carry them in a jam jar to another pond?

(From The Daily Mail)

At 2'9" and a mere one and a half stone, Aditya "Romeo" Dev is the world's smallest bodybuilder.

Using custom-built 1.5kg dumbbells, Romeo, 19, pumps iron daily to prove that small is beautiful.

He was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records in 2006 following three months of intense exercise.

Large crowds regularly flock to watch him at his gym in Punjab, where as well as weight-training and push-ups Romeo is training to be a dancer.

"I've been training as a bodybuilder for the last two years and by now I think I must be the strongest dwarf in the world," said Romeo.

"I have always been fit but since I started working out I have become famous for my strength.
Romeo, the world's smallest bodybuilder

"My size has never stopped me. I train with dumbbells and do aerobics and dance. People are always pleased to see me – I have been invited on TV shows and dance on stage."

Ranjeet Pal, Romeo's trainer and a friend of his family who runs a gym in his home town of Phagwara, says that Romeo has never let his size get in his way. "Romeo trains more or less the same as anyone else and he's much more determined," he said.

"When he first started I insisted he did a month of basic exercises like aerobics, push-ups and basic gymnastics to prepare his body.

"After that I specially made lightweight dumbbells and taught him basic weight-lifting exercises to shape his biceps and triceps. His size and his weight were taken care of so that he never hurt himself."

Romeo is famous in his home country, and his father has spoken of his pride in his son's determination to overcome any difficulties in his path. "He has never been bothered at being so small. He has no inferiority complex. He is the jewel of our family."

(Daily Telegraph)

DOMESDAY BOOK GOES ONLINE

The Domesday Book is available free online for the first time after the 900-year-old parchment papers were turned into a database that can be read on the internet.

It is the oldest and most famous public record in Britain and was based on the 1086 survey of England which covered 13,418 settlements south of the rivers Ribble and Tees.

For the first time, people will be able to retrieve and analyse the material while searching the database.

Prof John Palmer, of Hull University who worked on the project for three years with his son, Matt, said: "My interest in Domesday began in about 1980 as a teaching project. My son was getting interested in computing at the same time. It developed into a research interest for the 900th anniversary in 1986, but computers weren't powerful enough then."

Prof Palmer added: "In the mid-1990s, the improvements in computers revived my interest and I managed to get some funding."

The Domesday Book is the starting point of history for most towns and villages. Entries include the number of oxen per settlement, property values and illegal activity.

The total value of property in England in 1086 was calculated at £75,000 - worth £1 trillion today. The dozen richest individuals had fortunes ranging from the equivalent of £56 billion to £104 billion today.

Prof Palmer said: "No English medieval historian can ignore the book because it's such an important source for social and economic medieval history. It is the best record of who owned what.

"Anyone who looks at it is stunned by the speed and coverage: it was completed within a year and Englishmen were generally in awe of it. It was used as the permanent record all through the Middle Ages - there were all sorts of appeals to it to resolve property disputes."

The Domesday Book is available online at www.esds.ac.uk/findingdata

The database can produce results displayed as maps, tables or text translated from the original Latin.

(The Daily Telegraph)

Diet drinks may actually make you put on weight rather than lose it, a study claims.

Researchers in America say that artificial sweeteners make it harder for people to regulate their intake of food and may therefore lead to over-eating.

The findings come from Purdue University, Indiana, where rats given low-calorie yogurt gained more weight and body fat than those given a sugary version.

Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson, who wrote the study, said the results may explain why obesity levels and the use of artificial sweeteners have risen simultaneously.

They said sweet foods provide an "orosensory stimulus" which tells the body that a lot of calories are about to be consumed.

When that does not happen, the body becomes confused, leading people to eat more to compensate for the food's low calorie content.

"Digestive reflexes gear up for that intake but when false sweetness isn't followed by lots of calories, the system gets confused," they said.

"Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they otherwise would."

The findings will be a blow to the millions who use low calorie artificial sweeteners to help them lose weight.

(Excerpt from the Daily Telegraph)

COUNCILS TOLD TO STOP TALKING NONSENSE

Councils have been ordered to stop using incomprehensible jargon when communicating with the public.

Town hall bureaucrats have been provided with a list of 100 top words or terms to avoid.

The plain-speaking edict has been issued by the Local Government Association, which represents the interests of councils throughout England and Wales.

Sir Simon Milton, the association's chairman, explained: "Why do we have to have 'coterminous stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?"

He points out that councils not only have a duty to provide value for money, but also to inform people of what they get for their taxes and how to use services.

"Without explaining what a council does in proper English then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them or why they should bother to turn out and vote.

"Unless information is given to people to explain why their councils matter then local democracy will be threatened with extinction." Peter Griffiths, the secretary of the Plain English Campaign, said: "Their idea is excellent because a lot of terms used by local authorities just baffle people.

"A jargon has been created in the world of local government which is fine for the people who work there, but when it escapes into the outside world it can be bewildering. We should all use simple, understandable language."

(The Daily Telegraph)

JOBCENTRE SEARCHES FOR INTERNET STRIPPERS

A Jobcentre is advertising for £10-an-hour webcam performers to act out customers' fantasies by talking dirty and stripping off online.

The Jobcentre in Clapham, south London, advertised the position this week, stating that the job "may cause embarrassment to some people".

The "duties" listed in the job description included "explicit sexual dialogue" and "performing to webcam for clients' and