GRUMPY OLD MAN

Rising tobacco sales suggest that pipe-smoking is making an unlikely comeback.

Rough shag, anybody?

Many ye olde things eventually become trendy again and the latest yesteryear fashion making a comeback is pipe smoking.

No one tracks how many young people smoke pipe tobacco. But the evidence, at least in the US, is of a renaissance.

According to the Cigar Association of America, 4,900,000lb of pipe tobacco were sold in 2006, from a high of 52,000,000lb almost 30 years ago. In 2008, sales climbed again to 5,300,000lb.

This modest increase is credited by many to retro-loving students. Facebook and MySpace have thousands of members signed up to groups such as “The Ladies’ Pipe Smoking Salon”.

The most popular Facebook group is “The Collegiate Gentlemen’s Pipe Smoking League”, with around 1,500 members globally. One 19-year-old member of the club recently told The Wall Street Journal: “They say everyone has an inner child. I guess I have an inner old man.”

(The Times)

When I was young I smoked a pipe for a few years - I think copying my father.

However, I don't think they are less of a health risk than cigarettes. I know someone who has been a lifelong pipe-smoker and developed cancer of the mouth.

Smoking a pipe was considered 'manly' for men, but what about women - does that make them manly too?

I remember some years ago seeing a woman on an archaeological dig in Winchester, sitting on the edge of a trench, smoking a pipe.

She certainly looked decidedly 'butch'. On the other hand, it might have been a long-haired man!

Incidentally, a woman using a long-stemmed cigarette holder, as in the twenties and thirties, can appear quite attractive and alluring.

Take a close look at that shiny new 20p piece in your purse or pocket - it could be worth a lot more than you think.

A rare error at the Royal Mint means that tens of thousands of the coins produced earlier this year don't have 2009 stamped on them.

Coin experts say the lack of a date makes them worth £50 each, and potentially much more in future.

The blunder occurred after a redesign of the 20p piece. The Mint does not know exactly how many undated coins were produced and released into circulation, but estimates range between 50,000 and 200,000.

This is the first undated British coin to enter circulation in more than 300 years - the last occasion was 1672, when Charles II was on the throne.

The error has caused a great deal of excitement among coin collectors because the Royal Mint, in Llantrisant, South Wales, is normally so careful about the manufacture and release of coins into circulation.

The problem occurred after all the coins from the 1p through to the £1 were redesigned last year. The designs for the 5p and 10p had been unchanged for four decades.

There is an unwritten convention that designs should be changed at least every 40 years to keep the coinage fresh.

The Royal Mint's usually impeccable quality control somehow slipped up and the so-called 'mule' escaped into circulation.

A 'mule' is a coin that has mismatched sides - a reference to the mule being a mismatch of a horse and donkey.

The change of the 20p design meant moving the year date from the tails side to the side with the Queen's head.

However, thousands of coins were minted using the old version of the Queen's head, which does not have the year date, and the new version of the tails side, which also does not have a date.

This created thousands of coins without any date, a rare and valuable mistake in the world of coin collecting.

No one knows how much the undated 20p is worth. However, The London Mint Office, which is a private company with no connection to the Royal Mint, is offering £50 a time to anyone who has one.

In 1983, the Royal Mint made an error with the 2p piece and struck some with the wording 'new pence' rather than 'two pence'.

The 1983 2p mule is currently worth a few hundred pounds, however its value was enhanced because only a very few of these reached the public.

Nick Hart, coin expert at the London Mint Office, said: 'Mistakes like this not only fascinate people but also have considerable value-increase significance.

'We believe this extremely rare error will certainly get the public looking at the coins in their pockets again and noticing the excellent new designs launched by the Royal Mint on our coinage.'

People who find an undated new 20p need to register their details with The London Mint Office before sending in the coin and claiming their reward.

Full details of how to register are available online at www.undated20p.com.

(Daily Mail)

Nari Bari, India: Children lie in sludge during a ritual to induce rain

(The Guardian)

We may do this in Britain if temperatures rise to 90F (32C) as forecast.

90F HEATWAVE TO HIT BRITAIN

Britain is expected to experience a 90F heatwave next week, leading to the Met Office issuing its first Heat Health Alert in three years.

Meteorologists have told the elderly and the vulnerable to stay out of the sun and drink lots of cold water as hot and humid temperatures soar to dangerous levels.

They issued the level two warning, two off the maximum alert, after forecasts showed there was a good chance that temperatures could top 90F (32C) during the day and remain a hot and sticky 64F (18C) at night.

The oppressive heat could, they say, put thousands of lives at risk especially those with respiratory diseases. The 2003 heatwave killed 2,000 people in Britain and tens of thousands more across Europe.

Heat stroke, heat exhaustion and dizziness could also be triggered by the hottest weather by far this summer.

(Telegraph)

However, it may never happen - our weather forecasts have often been completely wrong. Perhaps we should expect heavy rain!

A mobile phone designed for children as young as four is to be sold in Britain.

The brightly coloured Firefly handset has just five buttons - including two which call Mum and Dad directly.

Details of the phone, which looks like a toy, came as it emerged that more than half of under-tens now own a mobile.

There were warnings yesterday that the trend for such gadgets was 'eroding childhood' and concerns have been raised over the effect of phone radiation on children's health.

More than 7,000 of the £85 Firefly handsets have already been sold in Ireland.

The Dublin-based firm behind the invention is now planning a UK launch towards the end of the year.

But Margaret Morrissey, of the lobby group Parents Outloud, said: 'We are continually eroding childhood and making children miniature adults.

'The excuse will be that it is for the sake of safety, but in fact it's for the sake of the mobile phone company's bank balance.'

Professor Lawrie Challis, who led the Government's research on mobile phone safety, said primary school pupils should not have phones at all.

He added that parents should encourage older children to text rather than make calls, since texting exposes them to lower levels of radiation.

The warning came as figures from MobileYouth, a research consultancy which tracks technology use by youngsters, found that 52 per cent of UK children aged five to nine have a mobile. Among ten to 14-year-olds, usage is running at almost 85 per cent.

Frances Crean, who is marketing Firefly phones in Britain, said that parents can block unrecognised numbers and control the contact numbers programmed into the phone. Some models do not allow children to text, she added.

Aine Lynch, chief executive of Ireland's National Parents Council, said: 'Targeting a phone at a four-year-old causes us concern. It gives rise to questions as to where parental responsibility is going.

'Why would kids need to be contacted by mobile phone? Why are they not in the care of their parents, teachers or supervisors?'

Official Government advice to parents remains that they should avoid giving mobiles to under-16s as a precaution.

But other countries are taking a tougher stance.

France is pushing through laws banning sales of mobile phones to children under six and prohibiting advertising them to children under 12.

Location: Co. Donegal, Ireland

Where else?

AIRLINE TO PERMIT PETS AS HAND LUGGAGE

Air Canada has announced that passengers with dogs or cats will be allowed to take them on board as hand luggage.

The flag carrier, and its regional airline Jazz, will allow customers to book a space under their seats for a pet for travel from July 1. They will pay $50 (£30) for a domestic flight in North America or $100 for international flights.

Owners must stow pets in leakproof carriers weighing in total no more than 10kg (22lb). A maximum of four pets will be carried per flight. An Air Canada spokesman said it would consider the needs of passengers with allergies when allocating seats. The carriage of pets is not allowed on flights to or from Britain.

Next month sees the launch of Pet Airways, an airline that will fly cats or dogs between five US cities. Pets will travel in a Beechcraft 1900 that can hold 50 animals, two pilots and one pet attendant.

An increasing number of Britons plan on taking their dogs on holiday this summer. Bookings from Britons wanting to holiday with their pets are up by 150 per cent at the hotels of Best Western, which offers customised dog-beds and fine dining options from its canine menu.

In Britain, the Pet Travel Scheme (Pets) allows pets entering or returning the country to pass freely without having to undergo the usual six-month quarantine period.

(Daily Telegraph)

EasyJet has been forced to abandon plans to allow couples to get married in the skies after Luton Borough Council rejected the proposal.

The Luton-based no-frills airline requested authorisation earlier this month to allow its pilots to officiate wedding ceremonies at 30,000 ft.

"We have explained to easyJet that the current law does not permit a civil marriage or civil partnership taking place on board an aircraft,” said a council spokeswoman. “But we would be happy to consider licensing easyJet's ground facilities at London Luton Airport.”

The spokeswoman added that any civil ceremony would have to be conducted by staff provided by the local authority: a superintendent registrar or a minister of religion - not a pilot.

EasyJet, who claim the move was taken in response to a number of requests from adventurous couples looking for an unconventional wedding ceremony, expressed its disappointment at the decision.

"We are of course very disappointed by this news,” said easyJet's UK Communications Manager Andrew McConnell. "It would appear that faceless bureaucrats in windowless offices have scuppered the dreams of many who wished to get married in the air."

Had its proposal been accepted, easyJet may have become the first airline to hold a wedding ceremony in the sky.

(Daily Telegraph)

P.S. For those who may be tempted to join the "Mile High Club", this notice is displayed aboard Singapore Airline's aircraft:

This is the Asian tiger mosquito, which can transmit 23 infections, including West Nile virus and dengue fever both of which can kill.

They are breeding in marshy areas in northern France close to the Belgian border - less than 100 miles from the south coast of England.

A recent combination of hot days followed by rain has created the kind of warm, damp conditions which mosquitoes relish.

Helicopters are being used to destroy the swarms before they head towards Britain.

The drastic and expensive clearance operation is being carried out in the skies above northern France.

‘The threat to public health across Europe is immense,’ said a spokesman for the Nord (north) Department environment agency, which is co-ordinating the airborne assault.

‘The choppers carry out their missions in selected zones, pouring insecticide over mosquito eggs and larvae.

‘If we don’t take such firm action then the problem will proliferate as far as Britain and beyond.’

While those bitten by the numerous species of mosquitoes breeding there are unlikely to develop serious diseases, itching and unpleasant rashes are a near certainty.

(From an article in the Daily Mail)

The long-awaited publication of the expenses claims of all 646 MPs was roundly criticised yesterday after key details were 'blacked-out'.

The disclosure came six weeks after the Daily Telegraph started publishing information from a disc containing unedited details of the claims.

Critics were quick to point out that the censoring of key information in the 1m-plus documents, at a reported cost of £2m, would not have allowed journalists to spot several controversial claims by MPs.

Gordon Brown, the prime minister, and David Cameron, Conservative leader, both signalled yesterday they were unhappy with the lack of full disclosure.

(The Independent)

This genuine Banksy image of Kate Moss sold in 2006 for £57,600

'FAKED' BANKSY ART TRIO CHARGED'

Three people have appeared in court charged with faking artwork by the graffiti artist Banksy.

Grant Howard, 43, from south Croydon, and Lee Parker, 44, from Eastbourne, east Sussex, are charged with conspiracy to defraud.

At City of London Magistrates' Court Vesna Grande-Howard, 32, also of south Croydon, is accused of money laundering.

All three face a charge of possessing articles for use in fraud.

They are accused of forging screen prints purporting to be by controversial 'guerilla artist' Banksy, whose art has sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It is also alleged they manufactured and sold faked Vivienne Westwood clothing.

The accused are due before Southwark Crown Court on 18 August.

(BBC)

Check back here on Friday or Saturday. Alternatively, why not visit two of my other blog sites that are remaining active:

http://poemsandprose.blog.co.uk/

http://picturepost.blog.co.uk/

"Yes! We have no bananas
We have no bananas today!!
We have string beans and onions, cabBAges and scallions
And all kinds of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned toMAHto
A Long Island poTAHto, but
Yes! We have no bananas
We have no bananas today!"


SCHOOL BANS BANANAS BECAUSE A TEACHER HAS AN ALLERGY TO THEM

A primary school has banned pupils from eating bananas because one of its members of staff has a life-threatening allergy to them.

Children at Stoke Damerel Primary School, in Plymouth, have been unable to include the fruit in their packed lunches since 2007.

But Vivien Pengelly, leader of Plymouth City Council, has now called for an investigation after learning of the ban.

Councillor Pengelly said: 'This is the first I have heard about this and it does sound a bit over the top to me.

'It's my experience as a headteacher that when there are allergies in a school we encourage children to manage the risk around them. I shall be asking officers to look at this particular case again to see whether anything else might be done.'

A spokeswoman for Plymouth City Council said it could not reveal the identity of the staff member involved, due to medical confidentiality.

She said: 'A member of the school community has a severe life-threatening allergy to bananas and on the advice of the council, the school has asked pupils not to bring them in.

"Most people know that individuals can have allergic reactions to substances, with nut allergies being particularly well-known.

'Reactions can be extreme in some cases, including anaphylactic shock, which can lead to collapse and even death.

The spokeswoman added the individual involved would be leaving the school in September - when bananas will be welcomed back to the school.

(Daily Mail)

The Daily Telegraph has published a list of Britain's 10 warmest spots, according to the Met Office.

Number 1. St Helier Harbour, Jersey - average annual temperature: 12.1°C (53.8°F)

Now what is he doing with that hand?

ONE'S SPUDS ARE COMING UP A TREAT:
QUEEN GROWS FRUIT AND VEG AT PALACE FOR FIRST TIME SINCE WAR

The Queen is growing fruit and vegetables in the grounds of Buckingham Palace – for the first time since the Second World War.

Onions, leeks, beans, tomatoes, lettuce and potatoes have been planted and the first strawberries from the 30ft by 13ft plot have already hit the Royal kitchens.

The Queen’s produce will feed several hundred palace workers and will be served up at formal state banquets.

But unlike more common or garden allotments, her palace patch is immaculately arranged, with the potatoes in a stylish semi-circle – and the crops are carefully tended by expert gardeners.

Fittingly, among the varieties being grown are Golden Queen and White Queen tomatoes, Northern Queen lettuces and Royal Red and Blue Queen French beans.

The project was started after the charity Garden Organic donated seeds of endangered historic vegetables from its heritage seed library.

On a visit to the allotment last week, the Queen and Prince Philip were shown Stuttgarter onions, Musselburgh leeks, Red Ace beetroot, Fly Away carrots and the rare climbing Blue Queen beans.

Deputy gardens manager Claire Midgley, who showed the Queen and the Prince around, said: ‘By growing plants and vegetables on this site, we’re not only helping to keep old varieties alive, but we’re also preserving history.’

Vegetables were last grown at the palace during the War as part of the Dig For Victory campaign to boost self-sufficiency with home-grown crops.

The Buckingham Palace allotment is not certified organic but it is being cultivated without chemicals. Gardeners have been using liquid seaweed for plant food and garlic to deter aphids. Water is provided by the Palace borehole and mulch from a compost heap.

Her Majesty and Prince Philip tour the allotment with Palace gardener Claire Midgley

(From an article in The Mail on Sunday)

You either love or hate his work. But there is no doubt that his new exhibition at Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery will attract hundreds of thousands of seasoned admirers - and some new ones. There are already queues around the block.

Banksy said: "This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off."

I think we may have dragged them down to our level rather than being elevated to theirs."

Take a quick look at this video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8096810.stm

There is also a slideshow of some of his new work at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8096000/8096891.stm

"David Beckham is one of the world's most famous metrosexuals.

But his latest advertising campaign for Emporio Armani underwear appears to be too slick, even for Goldenballs.

The England footballer shows off his well-oiled six-pack in the tightest of briefs as he poses suggestively with a coiled rope (what's that all about then?).

The racy ad was unveiled with a six-storey high image of his chiselled torso on the facade of Selfridges flagship London store yesterday.

Last year, Beckham signed a £20million deal to become the new global ambassador of fashion house Giorgio Armani.

The AC Milan star is under contract to front an underwear campaign in a series of billboard and fashion magazine adverts.

The celebrated footballer, 34, and his wife Victoria, 35, were on hand to see the unveiling of his impressive new advert at the popular store."

(Daily Mail)

It has been suggested that David Beckham has been 'touched-up' (air-brushed) in this photograph.

(Daily Telegraph)

(The Times)

£150,000 REPLICA SUPERTANKERS WHICH ARE USED TO TRAIN THE CAPTAINS OF TOMORROW

The real thing is a quarter of a mile long and full of highly flammable cargo - and must be safely piloted on the high seas.

So it's no wonder they start you out on one of these little ones.

The two little boats seen here are replica oil supertankers, used for training captains who want to take charge of the real thing.

They are electronically powered and worth £150,000 - which rules them out as a toy, for those who thought they looked like great fun.

The students at the Warsash Maritime Academy in Southampton are being prepared to deal with conditions on some of the roughest seas in the world.

The engines on the little boats can be deliberately failed by remote control to test how they cope in a crisis.

Trainee pilot Matt Sicard, 34, from Montreal, Canada, said: 'The boats might look like the sort of things your kids play with in the bath, but they are very hard to control.

'They realistically mimic the movements of a supertanker but on a gentler scale, which makes them ideal for learning on.'

(From the Daily Mail)

Spectators look at a creation by French mechanical marionette street theatre company Royal De Luxe in Western France during the launching ceremony of the "Estuary 2009" art festival

The Great Panjandrum revolved using propulsion from rockets arranged around its circumference, like a gigantic Catherine Wheel on the loose.

It never made the D-Day landings and had to make do with a roll-on part in Dad's Army instead.

But these amazing pictures and video show how the Great Panjandrum, one of the most bizarre secret weapons ever devised by British boffins, was wheeled out again yestoday to mark the 65th anniversary of the Normandy Landings.

Allied commanders hoped the original device - a 10ft-high drum packed with 400lb of high explosives - would storm across the Normandy beaches and blast a hole in the Nazis' Atlantic Wall defence.

But it was scrapped after nearly wiping out a VIP audience during tests.

Yesterday, to mark the D-Day landings, a replica was launched from the beach at Westward Ho! in North Devon.

Bated breath: Spectators wait tensely for the replica to burst into life in yesterday's re-run

Thar she blows! Rockets blast the monster wheel into motion

The sole disappointment was that it managed to travel only a tenth of the 500-metre distance its creators had been hoping for.

See the original device during a 1944 test - just under two minutes into the extraordinary set of clips of British experimental weapons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFDf1_MCD9o

And this is how it appeared in Dad's Army:

(From an article in the Daily Mail)

The Taga has just arrived from Holland and is fast establishing itself as this season's must-have accessory.

Use it to take the kids — from babies to young children — shopping, to the park, on the Tube or simply to spread a little envy at the school gate.

It is well-built, high-tech, quality item.

You'll save a fortune on petrol, parking and the congestion charge and be able to feel good about the environment and your waistline into the bargain.

But it will hit you in your pocket: It costs a whopping £1,695 !

(From an article in the London Evening Standard)

See the Taga in use at: http://taga.nl/taga-video.asp

Do you do it - wear socks with sandals? It looks ridiculous doesn't it?

It is as bad as just wearing socks when otherwise naked - completely unsexy. A tip for men: take your socks off first when undressing before a lady.

Or are there some ladies who prefer seeing their man just in his socks?

Back to sandals - It is no problem for me, because I don't possess any.

For more on 'socks with sandals' go to:

http://www.sandalandsoxer.co.uk/home.htm

Final note (supporting socks):

Just what is our national problem with socks and sandals? To hear some people go on about it, you’d think it was a crime right up there with paedophilia and mass murder. When, a few years ago, it was discovered that the Romans might have worn socks with their sandals, the strength of public reaction implied that their achievement in having bequeathed us the aqueduct, sanitation, roads and irrigation ought suddenly to be rendered null and void.

(The Times)

Full article at:

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article679563.ece

BOY CHOSEN BY DALAI LAMA TURNS BACK ON BUDDHIST ORDER

As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.

Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.

Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.

He is now studying film in Madrid and has denounced the Buddhist order that elevated him to guru status. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India. "It was like living a lie," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community.

A prayer for his "long life" still adorns the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 centres around the world. The website features a biography of the renegade guru that gushes about his peaceful, meditative countenance as a baby. In Tibetan Buddhism, a lama is one of a lineage of reincarnated spiritual leaders, the most famous of which is the Dalai Lama.

According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually "enthroned".

At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's cabin.

By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. "I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"

(The Guardian)

It just shows - a man cannot "appoint" a God

The mayor of London is going to put 31 pianos around the capital for three weeks from the end of June, with only a couple of metal chains and a laminated songbook for protection against the wiles of vandals and metropolitan musicophobes.

Each piano will have appropriate ornamentation – pound signs for the instrument outside the Bank of England, pseudo-psychedelic swirls for the Carnaby Street keyboard – and the hope is that a combination of public-spiritedness and musical responsibility will keep them in good condition.

But what about the music? Can you really turn a few keyboards outside London's landmarks into the equivalent of a pub honky-tonk for a good old knees-up; a 50s living room where the family would gather around the piano every evening, in some prelapsarian vision of the olden days; or the piano of the Victorian parlour, the heart of 19th-century domestic ritual?

Hopefully the pianos will be about finding new, 21st-century meanings for the piano's place in social music-making. Otherwise, we could end up with three weeks of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIPnrztpfAI#t=4m40s

(From the Guardian)

Notice in Thailand