TV Take Away?

Suspected thief transports 59-inch TV on bike

A cyclist was arrested on suspicion of theft after police caught him riding – with a stolen 59-INCH TV.
Stupid Steven Long, 23, was spotted by an undercover cop with the giant plasma screen crammed between his body and the bike’s handlebars.
When he saw the police officer he dropped the TV and made a bolt for it – only to be caught in a nearby garden.
Long, from Daytona, USA, told officers he had been given the TV to settle a debt and claimed he ran from the authorities because ”he didn’t like police”.
The victims said their £1,300 TV was stolen after thieves prised open the garage door to get into the property.
Long was charged with burglary, loitering and prowling and is being held in jail in lieu of $15,000 bail. Police are investigating whether he is linked to a number of other burglaries in the area.

Bank On It!

Woman, 100, has bank account from 1913

A woman in Ohio, US, has been treated to a birthday party at her bank — where she still holds the same savings account her father opened for her in 1913.
June Gregg turned 100 on Thursday. She recently mentioned to a friend that her account with a Huntington Bank branch in southern Ohio dated back to before World War I.
Branch manager Doug Shoemaker did some digging and says he confirmed it was true and that the account number changed just once, when Columbus-based Huntington acquired what had been called the Savings Bank in Chillicothe.
Gregg says her father wanted her to learn how to save. The bank manager says the account has helped the woman become financially comfortable.

Any Old Excuse!!

Lack of sleep 'kills a man's sex drive'

A study has found that men with poor sleep patterns have significantly lower levels of testosterone, which results in a lack of sex drive.
Experts say that reduced levels of the hormone can bring a host of other negative consequences for young men, including reduced libido and poor reproduction.
They can fail to build enough strength through muscle mass and bone density, leading to low energy levels, poor concentration and fatigue.
Low testosterone levels are also linked to the metabolic syndrome - a cluster of metabolic risk factors that increase the chances of developing heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
The study’s findings add weight to growing evidence that sleep deprivation leaves major, long-lasting effects on hormone levels.
Scientists from the University of Chicago found men who get less than five hours sleep a night for a week or longer suffer have far less levels of testosterone than those who get a good night’s rest.
Their study, published in this month's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that the levels of the hormone are reduced dramatically to levels more akin to someone 15 years older.
“Low testosterone levels are associated with reduced wellbeing and vigour, which may also occur as a consequence of sleep loss,” said Prof Eve Van Cauter, who led the study.
“As research progresses, low sleep duration and poor sleep quality are increasingly recognised as endocrine disrupters.”
Prof Van Cauter has been studying the effects of sleep deprivation for more than 10 years.
She added: “(A level of ) 15 percent is not an insignificant amount, since it is about the amount that occurs with normal aging by 10 to 15 years."
The study subjected 10 young men, with an average age 24 who were lean and in good health, to a number of “rigorous tests”.
These tests screened for endocrine or psychiatric disorders and sleep problems.
The men then spent three nights in a laboratory sleeping for up to 10 hours. Then over the following eight nights they slept for less than 5 hours.
Researchers took blood samples every 15 to 30 minutes for 24 hours during the last day of the 10-hour sleep phase and the last day of the five-hour sleep phase.
They were also asked to keep a log of how they felt throughout the week.
The study found that testosterone levels were significantly reduced after just one week of sleep deprivation. The men with the lower levels of testosterone reported a decline in their sense of wellbeing and their mood.
Five hours of rest reduced levels of testosterone by between ten and 15 per cent, with the lowest levels recorded in the afternoon between2pm and 10pm.
Prof Van Cauter, who heads the university’s medicine programme, said that, perhaps unsurprisingly, their vigour fell more every day as sleep restrictions were introduced.
Testosterone levels in men decline naturally by between 1 per cent to 2 percent a year as a man ages.
Last year a study found more than three quarters of Britons would rather have a good night’s sleep than indulge in sexual intercourse with their partners.

Love It or Hate It!

Marmite made illegal in Denmark

According to the marketing slogan it is a taste that you either love or hate. But Danes will no longer get the chance to make up their own minds on Marmite after the British delicacy was banned under food safety laws.

Many well known breakfast cereal and drink brands have already been banned or taken off supermarket shelves after Danish legislation in 2004 restricted foods fortified with extra vitamins or minerals.
But Marmite had escaped notice as an exotic import for a small number of ex-pats until the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration telephoned Abigail's, a Copenhagen shop selling British food, to ban the famous yeast spread.
"I don't eat it myself, I don't like it but Marmite was one of our best selling products. Not a day goes by without someone coming in and asking for it," said Marianne Ørum, the shop owner.
"All the English people here are shaking their heads in disbelief and say that it is insane. I agree but it is the law. It's becoming impossible to run a business in this country. We are not allowed to do anything anymore. It is the way Denmark is going."
The shop has now started a "Bring back Marmite" campaign to overturn a ban that is seen as discriminating against Britons living and working Denmark.
Lyndsay Jensen, a Yorkshire born graphic designer working in Copenhagen, told the British ex-pat RedHerring.dk website, that Britons would carry on spreading Marmite on their toast, even if it meant smuggling it in to Denmark.
"They don't like it because it's foreign," she said. "But if they want to take my Marmite off me they'll have to wrench it from my cold dead hands."
The sale of any foodstuff with the "addition of vitamins, minerals and other substances" must be first approved by the Danish authorities after a health scare over their effect on children or pregnant women when combined with other foods with high vitamin levels.
A spokesman for the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration said: "I cannot comment on the Marmite case because our expert is away until Thursday."

The EU….Value for money????

European Commission spends millions on private jets, luxury holidays and cocktail parties

Commissioners travelled in limousines, stayed in five star hotels and splashed out on lavish gifts including Tiffany jewellery as their member states faced savage budget cuts and rising EU taxes.

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism into spending by the EU executive has shown that more than €7.5m (£6.6m) was spent on private jet travel for commissioners between 2006 and 2010.

Baroness Ashton, the British EU foreign minister, came under fire when it was reported that she had demanded her own private jet less than 100 days into her new role in March last year.

Tens of thousands more was spent accommodating commissioners at luxury five star resorts in exotic locations such as Papua New Guinea, Ghana and Vietnam, the spending figures show.

The Commission also ran up a bill of more than €300,000 (£263,511) for lavish cocktail parties, including an event in Amsterdam costing €75,000, which was described as “a night filled with wonder like no other”.

It spent thousands hiring top orchestras to play at the exclusive parties, while guest speakers at its events were presented with expensive gifts including cufflinks, fountain pens and Tiffany jewellery.

Conservative ministers and MEPs last night reacted furiously to the disclosures, days after the Commission demanded a budget increase of 4.9 per cent, which would cost Britons €3 billion a year in "stealth taxes".

David Lidington, the Europe Minister, said the figures proved the Commission must slash its own spending before its demands for a budget increase can be countenanced.

He said: “Taxpayers across Europe are facing tough decisions about their own housekeeping budgets and its time for the commission to look long and hard and its own spending priorities. Any evidence of extravagance and waste will damage the standing not only of the individual commissioners involved but also of the EU as a whole.

“What’s very clear is that the Commission can afford to make savings before it comes asking national governments for any extra money.”

Bill Cash, Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee in the House of Commons, demanded that the EU’s financial watchdog open a formal investigation into the spending.

He said: “Frankly I’m disgusted. The Commission acts like a medieval monarchy and this is taxpayers’ money which is quite clearly being squandered on an outrageous scale.

“This requires formal investigation and as chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee I will be calling upon the Court of Auditors to produce an official report.”

Figures obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and passed to The Daily Telegraph show that the Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Barroso, ran up a bill of €28,000 (£24,500) during a four-night stay at the New York Peninsula Hotel in September 2009.

Mr Barroso stayed at the five-star hotel, where suites cost €780 a night, with an entourage of eight assistants while attending the UN Climate Change Summit. The bill included the cost of hiring meeting rooms and equipment.

The hotel bill came to almost triple the limit of €275 per person per night for accommodation in New York set out in the Commission’s staff regulations.

When questioned over the bill, the Commission said that the overspend was considered reasonable due to inflated accommodation costs in New York during the UN General Assembly.

Commissioners and their families also holidayed at five star resorts in Papua New Guinea and Ghana during 2009.

On one occasion, a delegation of 44 staff was flown to the five-star Palm Garden Resort in Vietnam for an event to “facilitate internal cooperation”.

On top of the £6.6m private jet bill, a further €118,000 was paid for limousines to chauffeur commissioners between official engagements.

Details of the extravagant spending is likely to spark public fury following the Commission’s proposals to levy more than £200 a year from the average British family in direct taxation from 2013.

Janusz Lewandowski, the European budget commissioner, made the demand for tax-raising powers on Tuesday.

Baroness Ashton infuriated British government ministers last month when she demanded an extra £23.5 million to run her diplomatic service, which would take her total budget to £427 million.

The EU foreign minister is the world’s highest paid female politician, earning £230,000 a year. Her demands for more cash were branded “ludicrous” by Mr Lidington last month.

A spokesman for Lady Ashton last night denied that she had requested her own private jet last year, but admitted that she is a frequent user of "air taxis" to destinations where commercial flights are not avaiable.

Martin Callanan, the leader of the Conservative group of MEPs, described the new spending revelations as “scandalous”.

"When the commission said it needs a five percent budget increase to 'pay its bills' we didn't think it meant private jets, Tiffany jewellery and cocktail parties,” he said.

“This is exactly the sort of outrageous spending that needs to be slashed."

Mats Persson, director of the Open Europe campaign group, said the latest disclosures about Commissioners’ spending would further sour the public mood towards the EU.

He said: “With the public mood in Europe turning increasingly hostile to the EU, the Commission would do itself a huge favour by putting an end to this kind of excessive spending. Revelations about EU waste have become almost routine, but that doesn’t make them anymore acceptable.”

The EU……What a “Gravy Train”!!!!

The European Union's spending

£3 billion

Amount of 'stealth taxes' to be levied on Britons under European Commission plans to generate one third of the EU budget by 2020 using direct taxation powers.

£682 million

The amount Brussels demanded British taxpayers stump up in extra contributions next year to meet a proposed £5.5 billion increase in spending.

£9.2 billion

Amount British taxpayers contributed to the EU in 2010.

£94billion

The nine tenths of the EU's budget in 2009 that was “materially affected” by irregularities, projects that included the spending of more than £350,000 “improving the lifestyle and living standard of dogs” in Hungary.

£2billion

The annual cost of paying pensions to Eurocrats by 2040, British taxpayers will end up paying £350million of the total.

£136million

The amount British taxpayers paid for EU pensions in 2010, giving the average retired Eurocrat an income of almost £60,000.

1,023

The number of unelected EU civil servants who pocket bigger salaries than David Cameron's annual income of £142,500.

£328,000

The annual pay and perks package for Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign minister and highest paid female politician in the world

2,558

The number of senior EU officials, earning £185,000 a year, who were entitled to three months time off work on full pay last year.

£67million

The amount that the European Parliament’s 736 MEPs can collectively claim this year in “daily subsistence” and “general expenditure” expenses without having to provide any receipts or proof of expenditure.

£150million

The annual cost of moving the entire EU parliament hundreds of miles from Brussels to Strasbourg for a plenary sitting once a month as a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation.

£90million

The European House of History, to be built by 2014 by MEPs, despite a continuing argument over fundamental historical event, such as what happened during the Second World War.

£8million

The annual cost of EuroparlTV, a television channel, which highlights the work of MEPs, and has only 830 daily viewers, less than 10 per cent of the 9,000 people working in the parliament every day.

£410,000

Cash to train teenagers in Burkina Faso and Mali, two of the world's poorest countries, in “therapeutic dancing” because Africans find that “expression of feelings through the spoken word is often difficult and complicated”.

£162,000

The funding went to the London-based Flying Gorillas troupe, whose acts includes the “brilliant smelly foot dance”.

Wash-Day Blues

Woman shot washing machine

A Florida woman allegedly flooded her home when she fired a rifle at a target inside her husband's wardrobe, missed and hit the washing machine instead.

Deputies entered the home in Hesperia, St Lucie County, to find "a lot of water on the floor covering most of the residence", according to Sheriff's Office records.

The 21-year-old woman and her husband, 33, are divorcing but had spent an evening together in hope of a reconciliation, reports WPTV.

They had a "good evening" but later started arguing when she told her husband she had a new boyfriend. She said her husband "went crazy" and started shooting indoors.

However, the woman later told deputies she had been shooting the AR-15 rifle with her husband. Asked to write a sworn statement, she allegedly said: "I'll try my best but I'm drunk."

The man told deputies he and his wife had been firing the gun at a target in a bedroom closet and his wife missed a shot while he was outside and struck the washing machine.

Investigators found cartridge casings in the master bedroom, and a target in the wardrobe. Bullet exit holes were found in the wall opposite the washing machine which was riddled with bullet holes.

Deputies said no charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing.

Fishy?

Flooded-out farmer needs permit to remove fish

Bureaucrats have added insult to injury for a corn farmer south of Montreal whose fields have been damaged by near-record flooding.

Martin Reid says he's been forced to buy a fishing licence to remove carp that are swimming in a metre of water on his flooded-out fields.

He says he bought the permit to avoid the problems he faced the last time he was forced to remove fish from his flooded farmland. In 1993, Reid was fined $1,000 for illegal fishing.

"My father and I ... were charged by Fisheries and Oceans Canada," Reid recalled. "We were jointly responsible for having caused the death of fish for reasons other than sport fishing."

Reid says the fine will jump to $100,000 if he's cited a second time.

He's under strict orders to safeguard the lives of the carp once he begins to expel them.

"We have to collect all of them, and we have to fish both sexes, that's what (the permit) says," Reid explained.

"I have to transport them so as not to damage them, by containers with water inside. If some of them die, I have to bury them."

What's more, his permit expires in two weeks even though floodwaters have yet to recede.

A spokesman for the provincial natural resources department defended Ottawa's decision.

"The idea is to help farmers," said Jean-Philippe Detolle. "The licence was issued to reassure them they won't be fined."

Quebec's wildlife minister, Serge Simard, also defended the decision to fine Reid and his father during the 1993 flood.

"He was pumping water," said the minister. "The fish passed through the pumps and came out in pieces. The neighbours complained because it was contaminating the environment."

Reid, a third-generation farmer, says the government's demands are unacceptable, especially given the severe crop damage that he has yet to fully assess.

"If we wanted to challenge it we would have to sue the federal government and pay lawyers," he said.

"The legal process could drag on for five years."

Smiley….Not!

Women not attracted to smiling men

A study in Canada has found that women are more attracted to men who rarely smile.

According to research by the University of British Columbia females are more sexually attracted to brooding bad boys than happy-go-lucky lads.

Professor Jessica Tracy of UBC's Department of Psychology said: "While showing a happy face is considered essential to friendly social interactions, including those involving sexual attraction -- few studies have actually examined whether a smile is, in fact, attractive.

"This study finds that men and women respond very differently to displays of emotion, including smiles."