GRUMPY OLD MAN

Americans have become famous for their poor grasp of geography over recent years but you would expect one of the country's biggest TV stations to be a little bit more knowledgeable.

Unfortunately there's bound to be a red face or two at CNN's headquarters today after an employee failed to locate London correctly on a map - placing it in Norfolk.

The gaffe came when the graphic was used in a CNN news bulletin on Sunday to demonstrate where London is in a story about the phone hacking scandal.

But instead of pinpointing London, the map placed the capital right where Norwich is - 120 miles away to the north-east.

(MailOnline)

Teachers were appalled when a mother sent her child to school with a sandwich filled with just Smarties.

The chocolate-filled butty has prompted calls for an overhaul in pupils' diets at the Lincolnshire school - including a trial of free school meals.

Health workers at NHS Lincolnshire went in to assess what pupils were bringing in for lunch - and found a wealth of youngsters were gorging on crisps, sweets and chocolate.

Lincolnshire already has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country, with one in three children categorised as obese.

But not only have the free school meals seen children eating more healthy lunchtime options such as pasta, baked potatoes and lean meat, it is also said to have improved behaviour.
Obesity: Health bosses in Lincolnshire have had to step in at school's because of pupils' eating habits

Obesity: Health bosses in Lincolnshire have had to step in at school's because of pupils' eating habits

Lynne McNiven, assistant director of public health, told the Sunday Express 'When we heard about the Smarties sandwich, it was horrifying.

Meanwhile:

A monster breakfast which weighs the same as a small child and could potentially kill diners is attracting criticism from angry health campaigners.

The 'Kidz Breakfast' at Jesters Diner in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, includes 12 rashers of bacon, 12 sausages and six eggs and weighs on average 9lb - 1lb 5oz more than the average newborn baby.

Health experts are demanding its removal from the menu and are warning someone with a heart condition could die if they eat it, with each helping amounting to at least 6,000 calories, up to three days' food intake for an average person

Greasy spoon owner Martin Smith said the gigantic breakfast, which comes on a 2.5 sq ft plate, is 'just a bit of fun', with the menu inviting diners to tuck in and 'leave a stone heavier'.

Customers are also offered the £15 mammouth meal for free if they can devour the fry-up in less than an hour without help but no one has managed the stomach bursting feat.

(From articles in MailOnline)

Have you visited the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican? I went there about six years ago and, after queuing for several hours, I was hustled through in less than ten minutes as part of a slow-moving line. There was no opportunity to stand still and admire Michelangelo's famous frescoes on the walls and ceiling.

Today I am giving you the chance to make a personal tour at your leisure.

Go to this link: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Move your mouse around and zoom in to see all the beautiful detail.

DOCTORS TOLD TO QUIZ ELDERLY PATIENTS

GPs must ask the elderly with serious health problems if they want ‘do not resuscitate’ orders put in their files, according to senior doctors.

They should also find out if patients want to die at home and whether they would rather refuse certain drugs or treatment in their final hours.

Doctors who carried out a study found discussions about death helped prevent thousands of elderly patients being admitted to hospital against their will.

There are concerns frail patients are being forced to remain on wards until they die and are given medical treatment that only prolongs their agony.

But many doctors are reluctant to talk to their patients as death is seen as a taboo subject.

Last week figures from the Office for National Statistics showed just a fifth of patients are dying at home – even though nearly three quarters wanted to. This number is far lower than in countries elsewhere in the Western world.

Dr Adrian Baker and researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen and Stirling are calling for more GPs to draw-up ‘end of life’ plans for seriously-ill patients.

This includes those with a range of health problems such as dementia, cancer, heart disease or diabetes, who are frequently in and out of hospital.

The researchers – whose recommendations are backed by the Royal College of GPs and published in the British Journal of General Practice – say family doctors should ask patients and their relatives if they would rather not be resuscitated should their condition suddenly deteriorate.

They also want GPs to help patients draw up ‘living wills’ whereby they can decide to refuse antibiotics, being fed through a tube or put on a ventilator. And they want doctors to check patients know they are dying and ensure they make a record of where they want to end their lives.

Davina Hehir, director of policy at Dignity in Dying, said: ‘There is no doubt that discussing end-of-life preferences can be difficult both for the patient and their doctor.

‘However, such conversations have an important part to play in helping ensure that dying patients’ wishes are respected.’

(Abridged from an article in the Daily Mail)

http://youtu.be/MVlfiDuUNmc

POLICE IN IRAN SHUT DOWN SHOPS SELLING THE U.S. DOLL

Toy shops in Iran are being targeted and closed down by police for selling Barbie dolls.

The move is part of a decades-long crackdown on signs of Western culture in Iran, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported today.

Mehr quoted an unnamed police official as saying police confiscated Barbie dolls from toy shops in Tehran in a 'new phase' of its crackdown against 'manifestations of Western culture.'

Despite bans on many Western books, movies, satellite TV channels, music, haircuts and fashions, young people maintain their interest in Western culture.

Created in 1959 by American toy manufacturer Mattel Inc, Barbie dolls wearing swimsuits and miniskirts are sold in a society where women must wear head scarves in public, and men and women are not allowed to swim together.

In 1996, a government-backed children's agency called Barbie a 'Trojan horse' sneaking in Western influences like makeup and revealing clothes.

(From an article in the Daily Mail)

P.S. I hope they ban the ghastly Ken as well.

An expensive new pedestrian crossing, complete with traffic lights, has been built outside a school at Gorsley, Glos.

The road used to be manned, perfectly well, by a lollipop lady. Today it has both the lights and her. Her job is now to press the button to make the lights change to red.

A waste of money?

"Airport to be built off North Kent Coast"

One of my pet hates is the unnecessary use of the horn by car drivers. Many use it just to express their impatience or annoyance with other drivers. It may reduce their own stress, but it increases the stress of others and can result in road-rage.

I live within a few hundred yards of a busy intersection and if the leader of the queue waiting at the traffic lights does not move on within a micro-second of the lights changing to green, there is a tirade of 'honking' from those behind him.

Many do not know that it is illegal to use the horn while the vehicle is stationary.

Rule 92 of the Highway Code states:

"The horn: Use only while your vehicle is moving and you need to warn other road users of your presence. Never sound your horn aggressively. You MUST NOT use your horn while stationary on the road or when driving in a built up area between the hours of 11.30 p.m. and 7.00 a.m."

Although breaching the code is not a criminal offence, many of its guidelines refer to legal requirements, and the instructions on using the horn is one of them.

Improper use of the horn is contrary to regulation 99 (1) of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, section 42 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988'.

For what he judges to be improper use, a police officer can issue a motorist caught breaking the law with a £30 fixed penalty notice.

Drivers can challenge the decision at court, but if magistrates agree with the police they can increase the fine to up to £1,000.

Another cause of annoyance is the indiscriminate use of hazard lights. You should only use the hazard lights when you want to warn other traffic that you've either broken down or had to stop in some sort of emergency: they are as the name implies to offer a warning to other road users that your car prevents a potential hazard in the position it is in.

Ordinarily you should only use them when stopped, but if you have to slow down really quickly on the motorway or on dual carriageway then you can turn them on as a warning to other drivers that they too should slow down more quickly than normal.

How often do you see a car parked (often in a dangerous position), with its hazard lights on, while the driver nips into the corner shop to buy some cigarettes, or is getting cash from an ATM outside a bank?

Such behaviour is thoughtless and selfish.

What do you think?

SEVERED HEAD

Two women made a gruesome discovery after spotting their dogs playing with something they had pulled out of the bushes near Canyon Drive in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

On closer inspection they realised it was a human head wrapped in a plastic bag.

The women, who had been hiking with nine dogs on a popular trail from the Griffith Observatory, called park rangers around 2.30pm. The rangers subsequently informed police.

"Two dogs were playing with it, and that's when the dog walkers looked closer and realised it was a human head," said Karen Rayner, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Cadaver dogs were brought to the scene to search for the missing body, but were called off at dusk. The search is expected to resume at first light.

The victim is believed to be an Armenian American man in his 40s, described as having "salt-and-pepper" hair.

Police believe the head had recently been disposed of due to the absence of animal bites and decay. The cause or circumstances of the death are unknown.

(Daily Telegraph)

The Hollywood sign, which was built in 1923 to promote a housing development, was almost sold in 2010 but $1 million donations from Hugh Hefner, Aileen Getty and the Tiffany and Co ensured the area was acquired by the Trust for Public Land.

The sign on Mount Lee originally read 'Hollywoodland' but the last few letters deteriorated in the late 1940s. The part that remained was restored in 1978.

(click on image to enlarge)

CAMPAIGN TO REPLACE "BRITANNIA"

The last royal yacht, "Britannia", was decommissioned in 1997 and is now a museum and function venue, permanently moored alongside the quay in Leith Docks, Edinburgh. It attracts more than 250,000 visitors a year.

In 1997, John Major's Conservative government committed itself to replacing the Royal Yacht if re-elected, while the Labour Party declined to disclose its plans for the vessel. Following Labour's victory on 1 May 1997 it was announced that the vessel would be retired and no replacement would be built.

The Conservative government argued that the cost of the vessel was justified by its role in foreign policy and promoting British interests abroad, particularly through conferences held aboard. When cancelling the replacement of the vessel, the new Labour government argued that the expenditure could not be justified given the other pressures on the defence budget (from which it would be funded and maintained).

Now proposals to build a new royal yacht to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee have are receiving considerable support and they won the backing of David Cameron yesterday, provided the project is 100% privately funded

The Prime Minister and senior Conservatives have swung behind the idea of a replacement for Britannia as a ‘fitting way’ to mark the Queen’s six decades of service to her country. Mr. Cameron has pledged his ‘full support’ for the ‘truly inspiring’ and ‘splendid’ initiative.

The £80million, 600ft royal yacht, funded by private donors and individual donations, would be among the largest sailing ships in the world.

The four-masted vessel would have state apartments for use by the monarch, but there would also be an exhibition hall and room for 220 youngsters because the vessel would also be used for trade and business events and by disadvantaged young people for science education and training.

The ship has been designed by the internationally renowned British naval architect Colin Mudie, whose designs have included sail-training ships for several navies. It has been codenamed FSP21 (Future Ship Project for the 21st Century) or ‘University of the Oceans’, underlining its educational role.

It is also understood that cross-party support will be forthcoming for any project which does not involve public funds. As a carbon-neutral project which would be built in modular form all over the United Kingdom, there is little scope for controversy provided that the taxpayer is not involved.

Mr Cameron has ruled out using taxpayers’ money for the new yacht, saying it would be inappropriate in the current economic climate.

(Daily Mail and Wikipedia)

What do you think? Is the proposal extravagant and unwelcome at this time? Perhaps it could be commercially sponsored, painted red and advertising Vodafone?

P.S. It was reported last year that the French President had taken delivery of his own personal Airbus A330, "Air Sarko One", costing £300million, (complete with fittings, which include a £65,000 baguette oven) - all naturally, paid for by the state.

"WE LOOKED AT EACH OTHER AND FIGURED WE WERE ABOUT TO DIE"

Passengers on board a British Airways flight from Miami to London got the fright of their lives when cabin crew mistakenly announced the plane was going down and they should brace themselves for an emergency water landing.

As panic began to spread among the passengers - with many fearing they were about to die - a flight attendant came on over the intercom to apologise, saying the message was played in error.

Duncan and Tracey Farquharson, from London, were on Saturday's flight and have accused the airline of trivialising passengers' concerns.

They told the Daily Telegraph that staff issued a 'blasé' apology and did not explain exactly what the error was until hours later, when they were landing at Heathrow.

Mr Farquharson, 58, an engineer, said: 'We were about three hours into the flight when an automated message came over the tannoy saying: "This is an emergency, we will shortly be making an emergency landing on water".

'We looked at each other and figured we were both about to die. Families with children were distraught and people were in tears. It was very distressing.

About 30 seconds later one of the cabin crew told us to ignore the announcement and accept their apologies but the tone of suggested they had not grasped how seriously we had taken it.'

A British Airways spokesman said that the cabin crew immediately apologised and spoke to passengers individually to reassure them.

They confirmed that the pre-recorded emergency announcement was activated in error.

The spokesman said: 'The cabin crew cancelled the announcement immediately and sought to reassure customers that the flight was operating normally.

'We would like to apologise to passengers on the flight for causing them undue concern.'

(Daily Mail)

A council has faced criticism for asking householders to sort their refuse into nine different bins. What goes into them?

To supporters, it is an effective way to boost recycling. To critics, it is, well, a load of old rubbish.

A UK-wide survey of waste collections found that Newcastle-under-Lyme provided its residents the largest number, offering them no fewer than nine containers.

Although Newcastle-under-Lyme is the only authority in the UK to offer nine bins, some 20 councils are not far behind, providing no fewer than seven, according to the study. These include Aberdeenshire, Middlesbrough, Neath Port Talbot and Warwick.

At the other end of the scale, however, two councils - Dumfries and Galloway and the Isles of Scilly - collect just one bin.

However, Trevor Nicoll, head of recycling and fleet services at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, defends the nine-bin system.

He says that the council have managed to save £500,000 from his department's budget and that the borough's recycling rate had gone up from 27% to 50%.

Mr Nicholl argues it is wrong to imply that households were compelled to fill nine containers every week.

"There's no compulsory requirement for people to use the system - basically, people can be flexible to use the container they need for the service they want," he says.

(BBC)

Watch the video towards the bottom of the website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12493755

Good training, or a waste of time?

Revellers in Manchester have been warned to be on their guard following a spate of thefts by 'hugger muggers,' who cuddle their target while picking their pockets.

Police received reports of 11 hugger muggings over Christmas and New Year, but fear the true figure is much higher as many victims believe they have simply lost their purse or wallet.

One victim, Stephen Chetwyn, 48, had his wallet containing £40 stolen by a woman he thought was ‘just being sociable’.

The nursing assistant, from Gorton, Manchester, was near the Cruz 101 nightclub on Princess Street in the early hours when he was approached by a woman and two men.

He said: 'The girl came up to me and hugged me for a few seconds. I didn’t realise she had put her hand in my pocket and taken my wallet until about five minutes later when they had all walked away.

'I thought she was being sociable and nice but obviously her intentions were the opposite. I feel quite angry about it.'

Sergeant Sarah O’Driscoll, of Greater Manchester Police, said: 'We first started seeing hugger mugging in the city centre in the summer and the number of incidents increased as we approached Christmas.

‘Officers are out in plain clothes every day in the city centre looking out for this type of crime and we work with the local authority to investigate incidents caught on CCTV.

‘Victims of this type of crime may not realise that they have been targeted, they may have had a few drinks and think that they have lost their phone or wallet. If you think this may have happened to you then please contact us so we can bring the offenders to justice.'

(Daily Mail)

P.S. This kind of robbery has been prevalent in Spain for many years and I have witnessed it myself in Barcelona. It also occurs in France and in a similar friendly incident in Paris I had my camera stolen from a side pocket.

Children are being abandoned on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more.

Youngsters are being dumped by their parents who are struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human consequence of the Euro crisis.

It comes as pharmacists revealed the country had almost run out of aspirin, as multi-billion euro austerity measures filter their way through society.

Athens' Ark of the World youth centre said four children, including a newborn baby, had been left on its doorstep in recent months.

One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.

Four-year-old Anna was found by a teacher clutching a note that read: 'I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.'

And another desperate mother, Maria, was forced to give up her eight-year-old daughter Anastasia after losing her job.

She looked for work for more than a year, having to leave her child at home for hours at a time, and lived off food handouts from the local church.

She said: 'Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn’t have a choice.' She now works in a cafe but only makes £16 per day and so cannot afford to take her daughter back.

Centre founder Fr Antonios Papanikolaou said: 'Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.

'They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need.'

(Abridged from the Daily Mail)

CINEMAS ARE PACKED IN THE SOUTH, BUT PICKETED IN THE NORTH

She remains as divisive a figure now as she did when she ran the country.

The biopic of Margaret Thatcher has split Britain, playing to packed cinemas in the South while those in the North are virtually empty.

Some screenings of The Iron Lady in northern England were even picketed in protest. But the film still made £2.15million in its opening weekend, making it the third most popular.

The biggest audiences were in London, where thousands of cinema-goers in the West End were unable to buy tickets as screenings sold out.

The Iron Lady launched last Friday and was shown at 439 cinemas across the country. Just in the West End, it took £350,982 despite being on at only 22 venues – 16 per cent of weekend takings. In the rest of London, the film was shown at 78 cinemas and made £546,663, a quarter of box office revenue.

Ticket sales indicate that feelings still run deep. Regions making up 5 per cent or less of The Iron Lady's weekend's takings included Tyne Tees – where it was shown at only 11 venues netting 2.2 per cent of gross earnings – Yorkshire, the West Country, Wales and Scotland.

Retired colliery workers, calling themselves "The Real Iron Ladies", demonstrated outside a cinema in Chesterfield

(Abridged from an article in the Daily Mail)

(While Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, Lady Thatcher, now 86, became unpopular in many northern towns during bitter clashes with the unions, especially the 1984-5 miners' strike.)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yDiCFY2zsfc

DOES ANYONE ELSE GET ANNOYED BY 'AMERICANISMS'?

I must admit that 'awesome' and 'like' particularly upset me.

'Awesome' was first used in 1598 and it is a perfectly acceptable word when used in its original sense of "inspiring awe or wonder", usually to describe an impressive work of nature e.g. "an awesome thunderstorm" or "the awesome complexity of the universe".

Nowadays in America, and increasingly here in the UK, "awesome" has the meaning of "cool" or "great" (two more Americanisms).

"Like" has been defined as "a meaningless word used in teen-age American speech which may indicate, among other things a gap in thinking or brain functioning; a contemporary equivalent of "uh" or "um". "He was like, about the same age as me, but like, I wasn't sure what he, like, wanted to do with me, like."

A third word (or more pedantically two words) imported from America that annoys me is "train station". What is wrong with the English "Railway Station"? A few years ago several of the direction signs in my home town were changed from the English to the American. Who decided this?

Another annoyance is the use of the word "guy". It was bad enough when it replaced "man", but now it is used to refer to both male and female persons e.g. a father referring to his son and daughter as "you guys".

Yes, I know I am pedantic and xenophobic and the English language is always changing, but many other English people think the same.

In July the BBC published an article headed: "Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples".

Please read it and let me know whether you agree, or have others to add:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796

RANDY RAM FATHERS 33 LAMBS AFTER ESCAPING FROM FIELD

A ram managed to breed with almost a third of a flock of ewes at West Lodge Rural Centre in Northamptonshire after jumping a fence.

The woolly lothario, who has been named Randy by farm staff, was only loose for 24 hours after escaping.

Thirteen of his offspring have already been born at the farm in Desborough, and 20 ewes are currently expecting.

The centre divides its 109 ewes when it comes to breeding so they have two waves of lambs.

But Randy, an 11 month old texel ram, jumped the 5ft fence when all the ewes were still in one field.

Farm manager Ryan Thompson revealed that Randy had another stroke of luck in December when he jumped the fence again to escape slaughter.

He said: 'He was due to be slaughtered before Christmas but jumped the fence at the last minute and we didn’t realise until it was too late. He’s certainly the luckiest ram I’ve ever met.'

(Daily Mail)

Shopping centres have triggered a Big Brother row after installing equipment that allows them to track customers using their mobile phone signals.

The technology has raised privacy concerns after it emerged that major shopping centre owner Land Securities has installed it at ten of Britain’s biggest malls. These include the giant Cabot Circus, Bristol; Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth; Princesshay, Exeter; Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow; Bon Accord & St Nicholas, Aberdeen; and The Centre, Livingston.

Malls using the FootPath system in the London area include One New Change and New Street Square in the City; Cardinal Place, Victoria; and The Galleria, Hatfield.

Path Intelligence, which developed the system in the UK, said it includes safeguards to prevent spying on individuals and that no personal information is collected. Rather, it is designed to track people’s movements to better understand what shops and services they find most interesting or useful.

However, most shoppers are completely in the dark about the tracking technology, and the only way to escape it is to turn off the mobile phone.

Nick Pickles, of privacy and civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said the law needs to be tightened to cope with new mobile phone tracking systems.
‘People are right to be worried that their mobile phones can be turned into tracking devices very easily, without their permission or knowledge,’ he said.

Shoppers told about the tracking were concerned that they were effectively being followed without their permission.

A customer at Princesshay, Hilda Luscombe, said: ‘This is another invasion of our privacy. We shouldn’t have to switch off our phones to opt out. This is just spying on us.’

Another customer, Robert McConnell, said: ‘In the George Orwell book 1984 everyone was saying ‘‘Big Brother Is Watching You’’. In 2012, everyone is asking ‘‘Who’s watching Big Brother?’’

Land Securities said the technology ‘is fairly common in the retail arena’ and added: ‘We are not monitoring a private individual. We record the movements of a mobile phone. We are not holding any data on anyone, all we get is a red dot telling us where it travelled to.’

(Daily Mail)

Professor Mark Wilcox, Clinical Director of Microbiology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has said that leaving the lid up after using the WC can allow a cloud of bacteria to explode into the air, settling on nearby surfaces. This increases the risk of viruses like the winter vomiting bug of transmitting to another person.

'It is very clear from our work that the lid is there for a reason,’ he said.

The University conducted a study to see how using a toilet lid could affect the spread of disease, specifically in hospitals.

They used a sterilised toilet cubicle and created a 'diarrhoea effect' in the bowl using stool samples that had been infected with the hospital superbug C. difficile.

They found C diff was transported up to 10 inches above the toilet seat when it was open and a reduced rate was still detected in the air up to 90 minutes later. Although C diff did travel through the gap when the lid was down it was found in far lower concentrations in the air.

The best advice is 'Put down the lid down and wash your hands afterwards.' However, many hospital toilets don’t have lids, as they believe handling them spreads disease.

(Daily Mail)

DUG OUT OF THE THAMES MUD

A Roman coin that was probably used by a lustful legionary has washed up on the banks of the Thames.

Made from bronze and smaller than a ten pence piece, the coin depicts a man and a woman engaged in an intimate act.

Historians believe it is the first example of a Roman brothel token to be found in this country.

Amateur archeologist: Regis Cursan, 37, discovered the brothel token near Putney Bridge, West London, at low tide.

It lay hidden in mud for almost 2,000 years until it was unearthed by an amateur archaeologist with a metal detector.

On the reverse of the token is the numeral XIIII, which experts say could indicate the holder handed over 14 small Roman coins called asses to buy it.

This would have been the equivalent of seven loaves of bread or one day’s pay for a labourer in the first century AD.

The holder would then have taken the token to one of the many Londinium brothels and handed it to a sex slave in exchange for the act depicted on the coin.

It is thought that the use of a specific image was necessary because many of the brothel slaves would not have been fluent in Latin so needed a picture to know what service their client required.

It is also thought that tokens were a way of ensuring none of the customers’ money went directly to the prostitutes.

(dailymail.co.uk)

This photo was taken at Stoke Park, Guildford, not far from where I live, on New Year's Day. We have had a mild winter (so far!) and spring seems to arrive earlier every year.

IT'S 2012