Odd News From Around The World.

[jackspratt]

I suspect Palin was wheeled in to add the required degree of conservatism and regressivism to McCain, who is otherwise seen as a near "liberal" by the troglodytes who apparently control the Republican party at the moment (and I include the media commentators in this group).

[BobHelm]

Labour favoured over Tories on economy - poll
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100326/tu ... 6b408.html

A bearing less believable headline than the Palin/McCain one - but apparently true.

The poll, conducted after Chancellor Alistair Darling's annual budget on Wednesday, found 33 percent of those questioned trusted Brown and Darling most to run the economy.

That compared with 27 percent who favoured Conservative leader David Cameron and his finance spokesman George Osborne, and 13 percent who favoured the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservative party must still be in a complete shambles if these figures do actually represent the thoughts of the voters!!
The Labour Party has - quite by accident as subsequent events showed - ruled the UK during a time of high employment & prosperity. During those many, many years of plenty it never even managed to save anything nor even provision for future costs associated with its known fiscal requirements like the Old Age Pension.
When the proverbial hit the fan it immediately went to the printing presses to bail out businesses who should have known far better &, in my opinion, allowed to suffer the consequences of their actions.
That 6% extra of the population seem to believe that these idiots are more capable of handling the economy than the opposition can only show the poor state of education currently being delivered in the UK or that the Conservative Party have finally made themselves virtually un-electable..

[trubrit]

All I can say. If you want more baht for your pounds you better hope the Conservatives win by a decisive majority. If Labour win , it will undoubtedly continue its downward slide. An even worse scenario is to have no over all majority government. Watch it crash.These are historic facts based on previous elections not my personal bias, although I will admit to wishing Maggie was still in the running .

[Farang1]

Chemistry Discovery

Paul Slaine


Oxford University researchers have discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.

A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass. When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons.

[jackspratt]

=D>

[Texpat]

Former mayor receives two year sentence for underwear theft

A man who was formerly a mayor of a village in Lancashire, England has been jailed for two years after being found guilty after admitting four charges of burglary.

59-year-old Ian Stafford, a bachelor, was formerly the mayor of the village of Preesall, however he had to resign from his position in 2009 after being arrested for burglary. His crimes would involve going into houses of people who had entrusted house keys to him as he was employed by them as a handyman or a gardener. He then searched through drawers for underwear before carrying out sex acts and stealing or replacing the underwear, and then leaving the properties. He also stole some garments. The burglaries took place in the villages of Stalmine and Poulton-le-Fylde between the dates of January 1 and June 26 in 2009.

One person became suspicious and installed a hidden camera inside her bedroom. As a result, a 14 minute DVD was recorded which shows the former mayor walking naked from the waist downwards. The DVD was passed on to the police. Police officers later raided Stafford's residence and found the underwear, which had been marked with the names of the owners. The underwear is said to have been worth up to £900 (US$1407).

http://www.bizarrenews.org/content/view/139/

[BobHelm]

Snow in a UK winter is a pretty rare event these days. This is very late to have the sort of quantities in these pictures from Scotland & Northern Ireland. Most other parts of UK have already been hit by heavy snow earlier in the year. Most of the UK has no concept what to do when heavy snow happens. All form of transport just stop & chaos pretty much reigns. this is also very late for snow.
Given the date today I would have treated the item with a great deal of skepticism except a sub-headline discusses a young ladies tragic death.

Girl killed as heavy snow hits UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8596448.stm

[Farang1]

Some how, this just seems fitting.....

School bearing Al Gore’s name built on contaminated site

Now this bit of cruel irony: The Los Angeles-area Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences, named after Gore and pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson , was built atop an environmentally contaminated piece of real estate, the Los Angeles Times reports. Some are now raising concerns that the $75.5 million school -- which sits across the street from an oil well -- may pose long-term health risks to its students, faculty and staff, as the groundwater beneath it is contaminated by chemicals.

It would have made more sense to raise the concerns before they started building.....

And, naturally after spending over $75m, it is completely safe......

Some environmental groups are raising an outcry over the alleged health risks associated with the school's site. School officials say that everything is fine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20 ... 9sYmVhcmlu

[BobHelm]

More than 230,000 Japanese centenarians 'missing'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071

It would appear that most have been alive in name only for many, many years so that relatives could pick up the pensions.

Officials have found that hundreds of the missing would be at least 150 years old if still alive.

The Justice Ministry said some of those unaccounted for may have died as long ago as World War II, possibly during the post-war turmoil.

[trubrit]

Just after my 75th birthday I actually got a letter from my pension provider asking me to ring them within 30 days or my pension would be stopped .Of course the young lady I spoke to said they were just confirming my present details, but it was obvious they were checking if I were still around . It is interesting to note my Swedish neighbour actually has to get a confirmation letter signed by the police, of his existence , every year .

[BobHelm]

One of my pension suppliers does similar TB. Not every year, but randomly, now & again. Does not need to be co-signed by the police but any neighbour or person (of any nationality) that knows me & is willing to sign & give a passport/ID Card/Driving License number to attest that I was living when they signed! I also had to send a copy of a recent utility bill/rental agreement/etc.
They were actually pretty 'easy' about what I provided as I 'talked' to them by e-mail before I sent copies of my last electric & phone bill - all in Thai & obviously without my name on them!! They explained that they had to do 10% of retirees every year for audit purposes & hold hard copy 'proof of existence' for the auditors to examine.

[BobHelm]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11415870

Lord Ashcroft has continued to avoid millions of pounds of tax despite promising to become a full UK taxpayer, the BBC has learned.
The Conservative peer transferred ownership of his main UK company, the Impellam Group, to a trust for the benefit of his children, Panorama has found.
Lord Ashcroft, who is set to resign as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, transferred his £17m stake in Impellam on 5 April.
The next day, on 6 April, a new law forced people sitting in the House of Lords to pay tax on their worldwide income and assets

Smacks a little of a move used by a former Prime minister of Thailand I seem to remember.

He was only allowed to take up his seat in the House of Lords in 2000 after agreeing to take up permanent residence in the UK and pay tax on his worldwide income.
At the time, the then opposition leader William Hague said Lord Ashcroft's decision would benefit the treasury tens of millions of pounds a year.
But 10 years later, Lord Ashcroft admitted that he had never become a permanent resident after all.

Bought his peerage with donations to the Conservative Party.
He is an especially odious example of his type....