You’re Nicked??

Stolen iPad pictures go viral
A U.S. man has been sharing with the world funny photos of the woman who has his missing iPad.
Allen Engstrom told ABC News he left the device on a plane while travelling from Phoenix to Denver.
A month later, his son held up another Apple device, showing a picture of a woman making a funny face and said: "Mommy, what's this?"
Engstrom's iPad automatically backs up pictures to his iCloud service. The woman in the picture has Engstrom's iPad.
Engstrom's not the first person to share shots of an alleged computer thief. This Guy Has My Macbook has long been a popular blog.
But the person in the pictures isn't always the thief.


In 2008, an Ohio teacher posted naked pictures of herself on a stolen laptop. A theft recovery company tracked her down and she was arrested.
But it turned out she bought the computer second-hand, and later sued the police and the company.

There’s Always One!!

Funny Flower Girl At Wedding…

Heheeeee! This cute little pumpkin really doesn’t understand that the petals are meant to stay where they’re thrown, that it’s all part of the ceremony. So she’s picking up every single petal that she can as the older flower girl in front of her throws them to the floor. Older girl throws, little pumpkin picks it up.
When she first does it, the photographer tries to stop her, but then gives up and takes a photo of it instead! Everyone’s laughing by then.
The older flower girl tries to stop her, but she ain’t having it – she gets vocal, determined to stay the course.
She runs and picks, she runs and picks, every single one, til she joins the bride and groom at the front.
Delightful, amusing little flower girl with a determined spirit. Brought joy to the wedding before the proceedings got underway.

Strange Holster?

Woman hides loaded gun in vagina

WHERE is the best place to hide a gun? If you’re the woman from Ada, Oklahoma, then you would’ve thought the best place to secrete a firearm would be inside your body.
Inside your vagina.
That’s right! Christie Dawn Harris, aged 28 years young, decided that she didn’t want the police to know she had a weapon on her and snuck it up her doo-dah. And it was loaded too.
Thank goodness it wasn’t a machete.
When the police searched her Toyota Yaris, she was hiding away in it complete with pistol and crystal meth. Harris was taken to the local jail where she refused to change into jail clothing. Why? Because she was on her period. Officer Kathy Unbewust suspected foul play and proceeded to conduct a body cavity search.
That’s when she saw a gun sticking out of Christie:

“I observed at that time a wooden and metal item sticking out from her vagina area,” said Unbewust in her report. “[I] pulled the item from her vagina, and found it to be a five-shot revolver with rounds in the chamber.”
“I then retrieved from between Christie’s buttocks two clear baggies containing a large amount of a crystal substance… tested positive for methamphetamine.”

The police aren’t paid enough, are they?

A Good Education??

Young people think blackberry is phone not fruit

MOST young people think of a blackberry as a mobile phone rather than a fruit.
When asked what a “blackberry” was, 82 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds polled said they would be most likely to think instantly of a smartphone, a survey for the Environment Department suggested

A Slow Ram-Raid?

Elderly man on mobility scooter sought after ‘ramming vehicle into supermarket window’

Sussex Police are hunting an elderly man on a mobility scooter who is thought to have rammed his machine into a supermarket window.
The renegade, believed to be in his 60s,  is suspected to have bumped the property after a dispute with staff at the Bexhill Co-op in Western Road on Wednesday.
Investigators believe the OAP crashed into the window on purpose because he was angry ‘over a customer service issue of some kind’.
The argument resulted in smashed glass and now police are seeking the man, who was wearing blue jeans, sunglasses and a dark top.
They have also released a CCTV image of him on his scooter.
Officers are urging anyone with information to come forward.
Co-operative Food said: ‘We can confirm that the front window of our store on Western Road in Bexhill was damaged on Wednesday 6 March, after a mobility scooter was driven into it.
‘CCTV has been passed to the police who are investigating.’

Walkies??

Dog ‘prevents owner from committing suicide’

A pet owner in France was reportedly prevented from committing suicide by her dog after it decided it was not yet ready to see her go.
The 63-year-old female decided to end it all in her back yard in Sorgues but her German shepherd apparently had a different idea.
In desperation the loyal pet reportedly did what anyone else who loved her would and collided with the elderly woman in an attempt to get her to drop the gun.
‘[The dog] probably sensed things and knocked into her to save her,’ a police officer said.
The woman suffered a chest wound but was not seriously hurt and should make a full recovery.
But it seems the dog has been negatively affected by its owner’s actions, just as many people who have dealt with the attempted suicide of a loved one are.
Let’s hope the heroic mutt gets over its problems.

Parking Wars?

Audi TT takes off and crashes into house

An Audi TT was left embedded in the living room of a house after an early morning accident.

The driver, believed to be in his 20s, lost control of his red Audi TT and left the road at 1:45am today.

The car mounted a pavement and flew through a hedge before going over the top of two parked cars in a driveway and smashing into the front window and brickwork of a detached house.

The front end of the car was left wedged in the £250,000 house about 4ft above the ground, with the rear resting on the bonnet of a car in the driveway

Shocked householder Paul Welham, 40, is believed to have been in bed when he was woken by the impact. Nobody in the house was injured.

The trapped driver, who suffered serious head injuries, was freed by firefighters from the wreckage in Long Meadow Walk, Carlton Colville near Lowestoft, Suffolk.

He was taken to the James Paget Hospital, Gorleston and later transferred to the specialist head injuries unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

The road was closed while the driver was being rescued and while emergency services dealt with a suspected gas leak at the house.

Structural engineers are now carrying out emergency repairs at the house.

Keith Shales, 66, who lives nearby, said: "I reckon it must be about four feet off the ground, I've never seen anything like it."

Sgt Bob Patterson, of Suffolk Police, said: "Collision investigators will be at the scene today as we try to ascertain exactly what has occurred.

"At this early stage we could not speculate as to what has caused the crash."

Err…….I would imagine speed, drink and the inability to drive a fast car was the cause Numnuts!!!

Lego….Crashed?

Lego Spill Clogs Up West Virginia Highway

Lego cleanup needed on highway 79!
Commuters on Interstate 79 in West Virginia faced at least an additional hour wait in traffic Sunday, WDTV reported. As drivers approached mile marker 117 in Harrison County, they saw thousands of tiny Lego building blocks scattered across the highway.
Firefighters and cleanup crews were there to pick up the pieces. Eric McClain, a firefighter on scene of the toy disaster, posted a photo of the highway littered with thousands of colorful bricks.
At least one person claimed responsibility for the spilt Legos. Tiffany Lantz posted on Facebook, “Those legos belonged to my 11 yr old son they where in totes strapped to the top of the durango they fell off strap came loose he cried it seemed like forever but I tried to recover as many as I could cause I don't have the money to buy him anymore." Lantz added an apology to those commuters stuck in traffic because of the Legos.
WDTV reported that traffic was down to one lane until crews could clean up the mess.

An Old Rave Site??

Stonehenge was ancient rave spot

British researchers on Saturday unveiled a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge, saying the ancient stone circle was originally a graveyard and venue for mass celebrations.
The findings would overturn the long-held belief that Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southwestern England was created as a Stone Age astronomical calendar or observatory.
A team led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London said Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is both older and had a different function than previously thought.
"In many ways our findings are rewriting the established story of Stonehenge," Parker Pearson said.
The archaeologists carried out a decade of research which included excavations, laboratory work and the analysis of 63 sets of ancient human remains.
They said the original Stonehenge appeared to have been a graveyard for elite families built around 3000 BC, 500 years earlier than the site that is famous today.
The remains of many cremated bodies were marked by the bluestones of Stonehenge, Pearson said.
Further analysis of cattle teeth from 80,000 animal bones excavated from the site also suggest that around 2500 BC, Stonehenge was the site of vast communal feasts.
These would have been attended by up to one tenth of the British population at one time in what Parker Pearson said resembled "Glastonbury festival and a motorway building scheme at the same time."
It seemed that ancient people travelled to celebrate the winter and summer solstices but also to build the monument, he said.
"Stonehenge was a monument that brought ancient Britain together," he said.
"What we've found is that people came with their animals to feast at Stonehenge from all corners of Britain -- as far a field as Scotland."
He said it appeared to be the "only time in prehistory that the people of Britain were unified."
Unesco describes Stonehenge as the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world.
But archaeologists have long argued about its importance to the people who built it, ranging from a place of astronomy to one of human sacrifice.
The researchers said their findings also gave a clue to why the monument stopped being used -- another mystery that has baffled archaeologists.
The earlier timeline they propose suggests that Stonehenge was built before the arrival of the "Beaker people" who brought with them a less centralised political culture. (AFP)

A Bit Of A Bummer?

Man live tweets getting dildo stuck up his anus

TO the hospital,where @Grawly is telling the world about his ordeal: he has vibrator stuck inside his anus.

“Yo guess who has to go to the hospital because he shoved a dildo up his ass and can’t get it out?”

Answer: “me”.

They Ruined My Birthday Party!!

Teen party in strip club cancelled after officials step in

There are a few teenagers in Ontario, Canada, that will probably be feeling pretty disappointed after a 14- to 18-year-old dance at a strip club was cancelled.
The youngsters, mainly the boys we presume, were probably looking forward to seeing the inside of The Studio 4 Gentleman’s Club for the first time but their plans were thwarted when the city’s licensing commission said the event couldn’t be held.
‘We can’t do it, it’s a shame,’ said the club’s manager Shawn Bashura, who added the teens wouldn’t have been allowed into the main club and their party would have taken place in the basement anyway.
‘A lot of kids wanted to come, they were excited about it.’
Officials said because the club held an adult entertainment licence no under-18s were allowed on the site.
One angry mother wasn’t surprised the kids were excited at the prospect of partying at the strip club.
She added: ‘Of course they were!
‘They’re little horny rebels, they think it’s so cool we’re in a strip club.’
Mr Bashura said the club had previously held nights for comedians, a hypnotist and even once hosted a baby shower (we’re not sure if it was for one of the strippers though).

A Full English?

New bacon flavoured condoms

If you fancy a bit of breakfast in bed then the new bacon flavoured condom may be right up your street.
J & D’s Foods has decided to follow up its successful bacon lubricant with another product they say is not a porky.
The Seattle based company is apparently serious this time round despite the lubricant having been intended as a previous April Fool’s joke.
The condoms come with the tagline ‘make your meat look like meat’ and will be coated in water-based lube.
One half of J & D’s Foods, Justin Esch, told The Huffington Post the success of bacon lubricant, which was eventually sold after its comic beginnings, encouraged him to launch the new condom line.
He added the new pork inspired contraceptives would smell like bacon but will be latex like normal ones.
‘There’s no injection mold or anything,’ he said.
If you want to purchase the latest sex based product from the company it will cost you £6.60($10) for a pack of three and will be available from June.

Baptised…Will Travel!!

Pupils to need baptism certificate to travel on Wales school bus

Schools in Wales have brought in a new ruling that will require pupils to present a baptism certificate in order to qualify for free school transport.

The proposal, to come into action next year, will require students to provide a letter from a priest or another form of "suitable evidence of adherence to the faith of the school", The Daily Telegraph reports.

Some 12 schools in Flintshire, North Wales will be a part of the move, which has already caused controversy. Local parents and Roman Catholic priests have accused the council of discriminating against individuals without religious faith.

Schools will be left to work out the finer details themselves, including what is acceptable as proof of faith. The decision has come as the local council attempts to cut costs across the region.

Greg Pope, deputy director of the Catholic education Service for England and Wales, has spoken out about the move and claimed that this year's financial settlement "has been difficult" with "tough decisions" being made. However, he added that he hopes councils "will stand by their obligations to support home-to-school transport".

A council statement said: "Like all councils, Flintshire County Council is under considerable pressure to make savings on its public spending.

"As a result, the council has had to look at every aspect of its work, especially where it is not compulsory for us to provide services and to consider how they can be delivered more efficiently and cost effectively."

On The Job??

Google Street View car captures randy Manchester couple engaging in sex act

A randy couple’s steamy encounter in a discreet alleyway has been viewed by thousands on the internet after they were snapped by Google’s Street View cameras.
The amorous pair were caught on camera by the internet search engine giant as it mapped Manchester’s Temperance Street.
A woman dressed in what appear to be leopard-print leggings can be seen performing a sex act on the man who has – quite literally – been caught with his pants down.
Google automatically blurs out the faces of anyone who appears in its Street View images, and has now removed the offending image completely.
Street View nudity has caused controversy in the past following a number of similar incidents spotted by internet users across the world - like this (possibly) naked man reading on his porch and a German man inexplicably in the nude in the boot of a car.
A Google spokeswoman said: ‘We take issues around inappropriate images in Street View very seriously, and we blurred the image in question after it was reported to us. For us, privacy is paramount.

Irish?…Not Here!

Florida pub forced to remove Irish flag
The owners of an Irish pub in northeast Florida said they were shocked to receive a citation for flying the Irish flag but have removed it to comply with a local ordinance banning commercial display of non-U.S. flags.
The four sisters who own Culhane’s Irish Pub in Atlantic Beach said Friday they would apply for a temporary permit allowing them to at least fly the green, white and orange Irish flag on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.
“St. Patrick’s Day is huge for us,” said Aine Culhane, who owns the pub with sisters Mary Jane, Michelle and Lynda.
They showed Reuters a copy of a citation issued by code enforcement officers for the City of Atlantic Beach on Feb. 20, giving them 24 hours to “cease display of flags other than American flag.”
The Culhanes said they had flown an Irish flag and an American flag on the front of their pub for eight years and were unaware of the ordinance.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Aine Culhane said. “We never break the law. We were just shocked and kind of sad that we couldn’t hang the flag ... Everybody is upset about it.”


City officials did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment. Acting Mayor Maria Mark told television station WTLV that the city council was reconsidering the ordinance but she doubted any changes could be approved before St. Patrick’s Day.
The Culhane sisters are from Shanagolden in County Limerick and have owned the pub since 2005. Michelle and Mary Jane are naturalized U.S. citizens and Lynda and Aine are in the United States on visas, they said.
“We’re definitely living the American dream. We love it here. We’re proof that anybody can do it We came here knowing no one,” Aine said.
But being forced to remove the flag of their homeland was an insult, Michelle said.
“The large contingent of Irish immigrants who fought for this country in numerous wars can not be treated like this,” she said. “Our flag is woven from the fabric of many proud nations and should never be discounted by the pettiness of a few narrow minded council members.”

Protest…Not In Melbourne!!

Occupy Melbourne Wiki Page Edited by Australian Authorities

Local council in Australia has suddenly faced a problem after it dealt with a protest movement by editing the movement’s Wikipedia article.

It turned out that Occupy Melbourne’s official Wikipedia article was repeatedly edited by a person who used a City of Melbourne PC to remove contentious words. The experts believe that this move seemed to help re-elect lord mayor Robert Doyle in 2012. The edits in question vandalized the page by removing the word “peacefully” to describe the movement. They also purged references to the council’s alleged involvement in dealing with the protest. In reality, Occupy Melbourne’s protesters were removed from the City Square by over 100 police officers.

In response, the City of Melbourne confirmed that the IP address used to edit the Occupy Melbourne Wikipedia article did belong to it. However, it claimed that it was unaware of any authorization to do that and pointed out that actually anyone could edit Wikipedia page and the council did allow limited personal use of council PCs.

When commenting the issue, Robert Doyle claimed that neither he nor any of his staff made the abovementioned changes to the Wikipedia article. But he still stood by his decision to clear the protesters from the streets of the city. Doyle told the reporters that if he was going to alter the page he would make it to his own entry which has a particular view of those events, which he apparently didn’t like.

In the meanwhile, Melbourne City Labor councillor Richard Foster was concerned that the alterations which removed a reference to the council’s alleged involvement in the dealing with the protest were controversial. However, Robert Doyle claimed that the changes didn’t even warrant an investigation at the council.

Greed….It Never Ends??

BPI to Ban More BitTorrent Portals

The new targets of the BPI are Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents. The group’s Director of Communications, Adam Liversage, announced that the entertainment industry’s ally is currently seeking court orders which require the major UK broadband providers – BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, Everything Everywhere and TalkTalk to block access to the aforementioned file-sharing website.

Almost a year ago, BPI successfully obtained a favorable decision by the British High Court which ordered British Internet service providers to block access to the TPB. Today the outfit is pushing for more. In response, the Open Rights Group published comments to the outfit’s hunting announcement, claiming that website blocking is definitely an extreme response. The consumer outfit fears that such precedent would make it too easy and quick to block websites and suggests that time needs to be taken to consider the legitimate use of the targeted portals.

The Open Rights Group also pointed out that there needs to be a more specific and adequate definition of the precise URL or IP address to be banned. After the industry blocks a portal, its alleged clone websites can also be blocked. However, in this case, the British Phonographic Industry will be able to do so without a court order. The matter is that such decisions would be made between the outfit and broadband providers and won’t be published.

In the meanwhile, blocking of these portals doesn’t come with an expiry date, which makes this indefinite blocking problematic in case the number of websites blocked keep growing, thus leaving a huge number of websites hidden from the public.

Industry observers believe that the court hearings between a judge, broadband providers and copyright owners don’t sufficiently represent the needs of Internet users because their voice isn’t included during the hearing.

The Open Rights Group is not going to intervene in this particular case, but claims that it’s likely to do so in the future because of the lack of user rights being represented.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for the source of the article

Hacker Hired?

Ecuador Hired Hacker Wanted in the US

Kevin Mitnick, known as one of the most wanted computer hackers in the United States at one time, seems to still manage to poke the hornet’s nest. It turned out that his security outfit, Mitnick Security Consulting, was the one who helped Rafael Correa win the presidential elections in Ecuador.

In fact, Correa is not loved by the United States that has historically had a problem with democratically elected governments who appear vaguely socialist in their leanings. Media reports suggest that Correa feared he might have the election stolen from him by hackers, most likely from the United States or otherwise. That’s why he decided to hire Mitnick to protect the Net Lock computer system. The latter has been assigned the task of tabulating the country’s elections.

Mitnick admitted that almost two decades ago he was busted for hacking, but now he is allowed to do the same thing absolutely legitimately. Of course, he’d love it. Perhaps, you don’t remember that in the 1990s Kevin was on a hacking spree and gained access to hundreds of universities, PCs and corporate networks. His targets included the likes of Apple, Motorola and even the FBI. In result, Mitnick was arrested and banged up for 5 years. After his release, Kevin helped private and public entities by providing them security consulting. He even worked for the American government to help them mitigate cyber threats.

However, Correa’s re-election is unlikely to sit that well with the United States. The American-trained economist has created his own “Citizens’ Revolution”, which is a socialist-oriented economic program having something in common with what Chavez achieved in Venezuela. Like Chavez, Correa is quite popular, but he is sometimes slammed for being authoritarian. By the way, it was Correa who has offered Julian Assange asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy.

No Laughing Matter?

US man facing jail for laughing too loudly

A man from Long Island, New York, is facing up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine after a neighbour complained to police he was laughing too loudly.

Police issued Robert Schiavelli, 41, two tickets for disturbing the peace for laughing out the window of his home in Rockville Centre on Long Island at about 6pm on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, his lawyer said.
Mr Schiavelli said the neighbour regularly mocks his disability, and the best response to those taunts is laughter.
"He just ridicules me all the time and the only thing I can come up with is laughing," Mr Schiavelli said in a telephone interview.
His lawyer, Andrew Campanelli, said his client has frequent seizures as a result of neurological impairments but denied his laugh is loud or boisterous.
"He's like a big teddy bear, he's got a low laugh," Mr Campanelli said
Mr Schiavelli lives with his mother, Suzanne Schiavelli, who said in an interview on Wednesday that he had a "fairly loud" laugh.
"I think it's infectious. It's cute," she said. "When my husband died, we said to ourselves, 'We're going to make sure to laugh every day and make the most of life.'"
Daniel O'Hanion, the neighbour who made the complaint, could not be reached for comment.
Mr O'Hanion and Mr Schiavelli live in adjacent private homes about 20 feet apart, separated by two driveways.
The Rockville Centre Police Department said they issued the summonses after receiving complaints about an ongoing pattern of noisemaking.
"On two occasions, police actually observed this individual creating a disturbance directed at neighbours and in violation of local law," police said in a statement.

Call That A Tip??

Pizza delivery boy gets $10 tip for $1,500 order

A delivery boy in the US delivered a total of 85 large pizzas to one address costing $1,500 (£1,000) but received just $10 for his efforts, a tip of just 0.69 per cent.

The enormous order was unsurprisingly pre-authorised, with the payment dealt with in advance over the phone.
But that doesn't mean you can't also tip the delivery boy on arrival.
In the US, where tipping is more of an obligation than a nicety, five-10 per cent of the order total is usually given to delivery boys, with 15-20 per cent expected for complicated orders, according to CNN Money.
The delivery boy had wisely decided to stay anonymous but his friend, known as jfastman, posted a photo of the receipt on social network site Reddit.
The largest delivery bags in the US generally carry a maximum of a dozen pizzas, meaning that this trip would have required seven of those bags, plus a single for the extra pizza.
The 85 pizza pies each weighed more than a kilo, meaning each of the seven bags he carried would have weighed at least 12 kilos.
Jfastman confirmed that his friend also had to make two trips to deliver all the pizzas in his saloon car.

Time For A Change…Perhaps??

400-year-old bed slept in by 15 generations identified as oldest in the UK

A 400-year-old bed which has been slept in by 15 generations of the same aristocratic family has been identified as the oldest still in use in the UK.

The antique four-poster with its ornate carved headboard has been providing a good night's rest for residents of the Berkeley Castle estate in Gloucestershire since 1608.
Far from being roped off into retirement like many pieces of historic furniture, John Berkeley, 81, and his wife Georgina, 73, still use the bed in the castle's Great State Bedroom.
Furniture historians say the style of the bed posts date them to the period 1560-1640.
They believe the royal arms in the middle of the headboard are those of the Stuart monarchy, dating the bed more specifically to the period after the accession of James I in 1603.
It has been suggested that the male and female figures in the pedestals represent Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley, and his second wife, Jane.
The bed was identified by retailer Furniture Village which launched a challenge to find the piece of furniture that has remained in continuous use by the same family the longest.
Georgina Berkeley said: "Despite its great age, it is the most comfortable bed in the castle. Sleeping in such a wonderfully historic bed conveys a real feeling of British history."
The Berkeley family is recognised in British noble history for having an unbroken, identifiable male line of descent from a Saxon ancestor who lived before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
The first feudal baron of Berkeley, Robert Fitzharding, died in 1170 and was reputedly the grandson of Eadnoth the Constable, a high official under King Edward the Confessor.
Henry Berkeley was born in 1534 and named after his godfather, King Henry VIII. His mother, Anne, was a lady-in-waiting and companion of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of the king.
He was a politician and became Lord Lieutenant and Vice Admiral of Gloucestershire.
The bed is listed on an inventory taken on September 20 1608 of New Park Lodge, a family property on the Berkeley Castle estate. The grade I building is believed to be the oldest private castle in England still inhabited by the family which built it.
The Berkeleys stay in private apartments in the castle, which is open to visitors between April and October.

Microsoft Wins?

Motorola Got a Good Kicking from Microsoft

Microsoft is celebrating after seeing off Google-owned Motorola Mobility in a patent legal fight over the H.264 codec. Press reports reveal that the battle involves three patents, 7,310,374; 7,310,375, and 7,310,376, which the company licensed to the Xbox 360, Windows and Windows Phone.

Motorola wanted $4 billion annually, which Microsoft believes is a little on the steep side. It also believes that it violates fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory standards. As such, the company claimed it will write a cheque for $1,000,000 and not a penny more.

US district judge James Robart has issued a 28-page ruling, where he granted Microsoft’s request for a partial summary judgment. The judge ruled many of Motorola’s claims invalid simply because the language in its patents is “not sufficiently articulate”.

According to James Robart, the plaintiffs has provided substantial evidence from various sources, including technical journals and dictionaries, to prove, for example, that some of Motorola’s technologies amounted to general purpose devices which are indistinguishable from the general purpose PC.

Later, a patent blogger Florian Mueller wrote that a rate might finally be specified soon, and it would likely to be in the vicinity of a few hundred thousand dollars annually. This outcome will hinder any attempt from the search giant to screw billions of dollars out of other entities. In addition, it looks like the $12.5 billion it spent on Motorola Mobility’s extensive array of intellectual property might fail to give the company what it hoped.

Actually, getting money out of Microsoft wasn’t the initial plan. Instead, it was more an attempt by the search giant to stop Microsoft and Apple killing off Android with patent actions.

Expensive Phone Calls?

There'll be roaming charges over the White Cliffs of Dover

The White Cliffs of Dover may be an enduring symbol of England, but according to telecoms firms they are French. Mobile phone users are falling subject to French pricing when they wish to walk along the beach.

elecoms firms are charging users of a beach in Kent as if they were the other side of the Channel.
Residents of the tiny seaside village of St Margaret's-at-Cliffe have to turn off their mobiles to avoid being hit with international roaming charges when they walk along the beach.
The resort, sitting on top of the chalk-covered cliffs immortalised by Vera Lynn's wartime song, is the closest place in Britain to the French coastline, just 18 miles away from Calais.
Locals and tourists alike say they cannot walk along the iconic cliffs without being sent a message saying 'Welcome to France' with a list of hiked charges.
These start at 28 pence to make a call, 7.9 pence to receive one and 8.9 pence to send a text, up to four times the price of a normal English network.
Pat Kelly, 62, of nearby Martin-Mill, said: "You switch on your phone and it says 'welcome to France'. I avoid the cliff area now because of the problem.
"Everyone has good cause to be angry about it and something needs to be done.
"Visitors to the area are unaware of it and are shocked when their bills come in."
Foreign companies such as Orange F, SFR and Itineris warn of the potential charges when English mobile-users switch on but there is nothing that can be done to avoid them.
Mobile signals travel only in straight lines and the majestic cliffs, made famous by Vera Lynn's wartime song, block out any English network.
There is a mast in St Margaret's, with a population of 2,500 people, and there are many more in nearby Dover but the beach area remains firmly in French hands.
Locals even talk of rows between couples when one partner discovers French numbers on their bills after receiving the text messages.
Perry Mercer, of estate agents Marshall and Clarke in St Margaret's said: "It can be funny though when some think their partners are having affairs with someone in France when they get their bills. It has happened."
Unsuspecting users turn on their devices to be greeted by the following message: "Welcome to France.
"It will cost £0.288/min to make and £0.079/min to receive calls. Send texts for £0.089 each and picture messages for £0.30 each or with a Euro Booster you can get up to 26 mins of calls or 85 texts to the UK for just £5.
"Internet Browsing costs £1.50 per Mb and is excluded from UK allowances and remember this is capped so you never pay more than £4 per day."
Nigel Wydymus, 53, who owns the Coastguard pub on the beach, said customers avoided his pub because they feared being charged for data roaming.
"Tourists who come down from London to see the White Cliffs are the ones who find it most annoying. They sit there with their iPhones and are shocked to receive a foreign signal when they still in England."
A spokesman for EE, who cover T-Mobile and Orange, said: "We advise our customers to switch off roaming while they are in this little pocket of an area to ensure that they are connecting to the correct network."
An O2 spokesperson said: "Owing to the geographical location of St Margaret's-at-Cliffe, sometimes a strong signal from a French network can travel over the flat expanse of water of the Channel."

Parent Control…NOT!!

Five-year-old runs up £1,700 iPad bill in ten minutes

A five-year-old boy ran up a £1,700 bill on his parents' iPad in just ten minutes.

Danny Kitchen had asked for the passcode for the device so that he could download a game, Zombie v Ninja, from the Apple store.
Greg and Sharon Kitchen eventually agreed and left their son alone with the tablet computer as they entertained friends at their home in Warmley, near Bristol.
But after downloading the free app Danny found his way into the game's online store and innocently ordered dozens of costly add-ons - totalling £1,710.43.
His mother knew nothing about his spending spree until she saw a batch of emails from iTunes the following day listing what he had bought.
Her credit card company then phoned to query the payments - and Mrs Kitchen, 44, realised what had happened.
She explained: "Danny was pestering us to let him have a go on the iPad. He kept saying it was a free game so my husband put in the passcode and handed it to him.
"It worried me when he asked for the password but I had a look at the game it said it was free so I didn't think there would be a problem.
"We had lots of visitors in the house and were both a little preoccupied. I woke up Monday morning and looked at my emails and had loads from iTunes.
"I thought it must be a mistake, so I checked my bank balance online and nothing had been taken out.
"I thought nothing of it until I my credit card advisor phoned and told me they had authorised the transaction."
Danny had bought dozens of in-game weapons and keys on the iPad 3 including 12 purchases of '333 keys' at £69.99 a time and seven '333 ecstasy bombs' at £69.99.
He also bought five lots of "9000 darts" each costing £69.99, five lots of '4200 darts' at £5.49 each and additional ecstasy bombs totalling £3.22.
Mrs Kitchen, a mother-of-five, said: "I realised what happened and told Danny he'd better get ready for bed and run and hide before daddy got home.
"He was crying, as the rest of the children were telling him we could have bought a house with the amount he had spent.
"He started to run and through his tears he turned back and said 'But where can I hide?' Bless him - that stopped me being angry but of course it's a lot of money.
"Loads of parents in the playground said similar things had happened to them but for a lot less money. I can't believe he was able to spend so much money.
"It was far too easy a thing for him to do and more should be done to limit stuff like this from happening. That game is very annoying - and who would spend more than £1,700 on a game?
"It's the first time any of our kids have done anything like this - and it will be the last."
Danny said: "I said to dad can you put the passcode for the game he said no and then I said it was free so he said yes.
"The next day it cost lots of money. I was worried and I felt sad. I was crying. I'm not sure how I did it, I thought it was free."
"It was a good game, but I will never do anything like this again. I'm banned from the iPad now, but I am still going to play games when I can, but I will be careful now."
Mr and Mrs Kitchen run their own children's entertainment company and have four older children - Rosie, six, Riley, eight, Conor, 11, and Shannon, 15.
Apple have now told the family they will refund the money.

Nice One Vic!!

Vicar flashed naked woman to congregation during sermon

Church issues apology after vicar flashed a naked woman to the congregation during Power Point sermon.

Vicar Daniel Watts was conducting the presentation at St Mark's Church, Harrogate, North Yorks, on Sunday evening when the pornographic image flashed up on the screen.
The 'page 3' style image caused panic in the room with Rev Watts, a married father of two, hurried tried to remove it from view.
Now St Marks's has said sorry for the incident, which happened in the middle of the 'In The Mix Sunday Session' which from 5pm to 6pm, was billed as a 'café style teaching and discussion for adults and children.'
St Mark's claims the 'inappropriate' image was shown during a Power Point presentation to 50 adult members at the weekend and put it down to a 'technical glitch'.
The presentation was being delivered in a meeting room by overall group leader, the Rev Watts, as part of a separate teaching section .
Mr Watts - a self-proclaimed 'Only Fool and Horses' fanatic - is associate minister for young people at St Mark's.
The church said no children were present, and few people had noticed the error.
A statement read: "A separate teaching section was being held for about 50 adult members of the 5 o'clock service at St Mark's church last Sunday in a meeting room and a Power Point presentation was shown.
"It appears that a technical glitch accidentally caused an inappropriate image from the internet to appear momentarily on the screen, of a 'Page 3' type.
"This was clearly not intended but was so fleeting it was not spotted by the leader of the teaching session and very few people seem to be have been aware of it.
"No-one made any comment or complaint at the time or after the service, but if anyone was offended we of course would like to apologise for this unfortunate occurrence."
But an anonymous and concerned parishioner present at the meeting claiming the appearance of the image caused 'panic' in the room.
They said: "The vicar doing the service was doing an overhead projection for part of his service.
"He must have been using an iPad or something similar. One of the icons showed a pornographic picture.
"It appeared to show a naked lady. A lot of people noticed it and were quite shocked.
"There was a bit of panic, he was clearly trying to get it down.
"It was just so inappropriate, there were young children about."
The church website explains Rev Watts was born in Dorking, Surrey, and grew up in a tiny village near Gatwick. After working as a church-based Youth and Children's worker for 10 years in Surrey and Kent, he spent 2 years at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, before he was ordained in 2006.

Love Finds A Way!

Couple's naked protest causes gridlock

Two lovers banned from seeing each other by their parents brought traffic to a standstill when they stripped off and threatened to leap from a bridge.
The couple kept police and rescuers at bay for more than two hours as they stayed locked in a passionate clinch on a flyover 30ft above a motorway in China.
"Our parents say we can't be together but we want to show people we have nothing to hide," they told a bemused crowd in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
"We won't come down until everyone has seen how much we mean to each other and that our parents will never be able to pull us apart," they added.
Bridge protests have become common in China, but public nudity is still considered scandalously shocking.
"We waited for the high wind and the cold air to cool off their passion and eventually they gave themselves up.
"Our biggest problem was blocking the traffic so motorists didn't drive into each other trying to get a better look," said a police spokesman.

Is It Time For Bed??

Boy Calls 911 about Bedtime

A 10-year old Massachusetts boy reportedly called police in protest over his bedtime earlier this week.
Dan Davis dialed 911 just after 8 p.m. on Wednesday night and hung up before speaking to anyone.  He then retreated to his bed and hid under the covers, according to Brockton-based newspaper The Enterprise.
Davis is a fourth grader who wanted to stay up later than usual while on vacation from school.
When the dispatcher called the boy back at his home his mother answered the phone and explained the situation. Shamayne Rosario, a mother of six, said that her son refused to go to bed and threatened to call the police to report her.
"I said go ahead," she told NBC affiliate WHDH.
The boy chose not to get back on the phone with officials while his mother berated him for calling the emergency line.
As the department is required to confirm all calls in person, officers were sent to the family's home. Rosario asked the responding officer to explain the importance of 911 calls to her son, also outlining when such calls are appropriate.
Rosario told Enterprise that she believes her son learned his lesson.
No one involved was charged, but Dan was grounded for two weeks.

It’s A Bargain & Bomb-Proof?

Margaret Thatcher bomb-proof bus auctioned for £17,000

A bomb-proof bus that was supposedly used by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher has been auctioned off for around £17,000.

The vehicle - weighing at 28 tonnes and built in the 1980s - secured a winning bid of £16,940 on Thursday (February 21), reports PA.

A spokesman for JP Humbert Auctioneers said: "There was immense interest in the bus. It sold to a spontaneous round of applause in the saleroom.

"This isn't a good-looking vehicle by any stretch of the imagination, but it is of social and historical interest.

"It is an irreplaceable one-off - an iron bus for the Iron Lady."

The bus, which boasts armour-plated glass and a blast-proof floor, has travelled 17,398 miles.

It is also fitted with a 12-litre Rolls-Royce engine.

French Workers….Non!!

"Keep your so-called workers," U.S. boss tells France

The CEO of a U.S. tyre maker has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take over a factory whose staff only put in three hours work a day.
Titan International's Maurice Taylor, nicknamed "The Grizz" for his negotiating style, told the left-wing French industry minister in a letter published by media on Wednesday that he had no interest in rescuing a plant set for closure.
"The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three," Taylor wrote on February 8 in the letter in English to the minister, Arnaud Montebourg.
"I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!" Taylor added in the letter, which was posted by business daily Les Echos on its website and which the ministry confirmed was genuine.
"Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs," he said. "You can keep the so-called workers."
Socialist President Francois Hollande might take some comfort in Taylor's view of his own country's business policies: "The U.S. government is not much better than the French," he said, referring to a dispute over Chinese exports.
Montebourg's office said the letter was an authentic response to Paris consulting Titan as a possible buyer of U.S. group Goodyear's Amiens Nord factory in northern France.
The minister refrained from an immediate reply: ""Don't worry, there will be a response," Montebourg told reporters on Wednesday after meeting Hollande. "It's better written down."
Union leaders were less cautious. CGT official Mickael Wamen said Taylor belonged more "in an asylum" than the boardroom of a multinational company.

Runaway From The Circus??

Runaway camel caught by police after circus escape

A camel’s attempt to leave the circus has ended in failure after it was rounded up by surprised police officers in Dortmund, Germany.
At first, authorities did not believe reports the animal was on the loose – thinking a prank was being played by some youngsters.
‘[The calls] started to come in from all over the town and we thought it was a group of kids mucking about,’ an officer said.
‘It was only when we realised there was a circus in town that we put two and two together.’
Police were able to corner the two-humped camel, which is native to parts of central Asia, as he roamed around town by himself and then called circus workers to come and collect it.
‘At first they denied any knowledge of it, which we thought was a bit odd,’ the police spokesperson continued.
‘Then they came back, very embarrassed, and admitted that, yes, one of their camels had gone missing and they were on their way.’

A Nun Inn??

Pub owner fined after lock-in with 'nuns'

A pub owner in Ireland has been fined for holding a lock-in with dozens of nuns.

Christy Walsh, who runs a bar in Listowel, County Kerry, has been fined a total of 700 euros (£605) due to the illegal drinking.

However, the wimple wearers were not actually real nuns - they were volunteers who dressed up as nuns as part of a Guinness World Record attempt entitled 'Nunday'.

A total of 1,436 adults dressed up and gathered at the GAA sports ground in the town for the event.

Police later visited the bar at 1.45am, 45 minutes after closing time, and found 30 people dressed as nuns. During a second visit at about 4.10am, there were still apparently 21 of them at the bar.

Walsh said he accepted that police officers who turned up at his pub were just "doing their job", but added that he was saddened by the decision to proceed with the prosecution.

Amazon In The Money?

Amazon to Bring in Virtual Currency

Amazon introduces virtual currency which could be used for purchases on the Kindle Fire tablet. The experts believe that the idea is to encourage more developers to create software for the device.

From May 2013, American customers will be able to use Amazon Coins to purchase software and virtual merchandise sold within games. Amazon is going to “print” tens of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency, which will be accepted in its app store.

The experts believe that this move is part of a cunning plan to get users to play with Fire applications and force more developers to write software for it. The reason is that the company’s share of the tablet market has dropped to 12% from 16%.

Using the virtual money, plan developers will still get the 70% revenue share from purchases made with the coins. The online bookseller also announced that after the coin giveaway ends, the users will be able to buy the tokens through their Amazon accounts. The retailer explained that Amazon Coins was meant to be an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money in the Amazon Appstore. The company issued a statement, saying that it provided app and game developers another great opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization.

The company has already released tools which allow developers add extra features to games for its tablet. The features included tracking high scores and monitoring awards won during play.

Of course, Amazon has a long way to go before it catches up with such market giants as Apple and Android. The retailer currently has over 68,000 apps in its store, compared with 4,000 when it was launched two years ago. In the meanwhile, Google and Apple have about 700,000 apps each in their stores.

We’re Not Paying!

UK’s Copyright Law to Be Postponed Due to Costs Concerns

he Digital Economy Act is the result of the British government’s attempt to fight Internet piracy, which includes sending notifications to people suspected of copyright violation amongst its provisions. However, the vital document specifying who’s to pay for all the troubles has been pulled out, which might lead to a delay of the law.
The paper in question is “Sharing of Costs Order” and it has been for some reason pulled out from the bill. The plan was to kick-start the anti-piracy measures in March 2014 which include sending notifications and even account blocking. Nevertheless, that last bid may not even be discussed; not only connections being terminated had been harshly criticized, but copyrights owners, to the surprise of some, offered a counterproposal – to change this measure for a fine.

According to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, technical changes are needed to the cost-sharing statutory instrument, which won’t have impact on the overall effect of the bill. It is going to re-introduce the statutory instrument as soon as possible.

The reason is explained by digital rights campaigners – the document in question was pulled out because of the concerns expressed by the country’s Treasury. The matter is that the costs for managing and applying the anti-piracy measures mentioned in the bill aren’t consistent with its “Managing Public Money” guidelines.

As such, the document that was initially created by the DMCS and Ofcom will be revised. After that, the Parliament will decide how to vote on it. Actually, it makes it look like sending out notifications in 2014 may appear no longer realistic.

In the meanwhile, the industry experts believe that Ofcom is spending lots of public money, which ultimately would be paid back by rights holders taking part in the scheme. Although the authorities claim that the current problem is technical compliance with the guidelines, the exact reasons are still unclear. But the fact that Ofcom is going to spend millions without clear commitment from rights holders about who will pay it back is obviously part of the problem.

At the moment, it is unclear how long it will take for the legislation to kick in, but the experts expect some drastic changes.

What’s Not Racist??

Study Revealed Google Adverts Are Racist

According to a Harvard professor, some of Google’s adverts discriminate, as they link “racially associated” names to a possible criminal background.
The study was conducted by government and technology professor Latanya Sweeney, who looked at around 2,200 full names on Google and Reuters.com, both of them using Google AdWords advertisements. The study revealed that names associated with black people were more likely to show advertisements suggesting arrest, contrary to “white identifying” names.

For example, such names as DeShawn, Darnell and Jermaine, which are associated with black people, netted criminal ads in 81% to 86% of searches on Google, and up to 95% on Reuters.com.

At the same time, Geoffrey, Jill and Emma, who are more typically associated with white people, only resulted in 23% to 29% of such ads on the first website and 0% to 60% on the other, according to Sweeney’s study. Indeed, if you search “Latonya Evans”, you are more likely to find “Latonya Evans, Arrested?”, though the name Laurie Ryan would result in “Background of Laurie Ryan”.

The search giant denied that it conducted racial profiling in AdWords. The company explained that it had a policy forbidding advertisements which advocate against any organization, person or group of people. In fact, it’s up to individual advertisers to decide which keywords they want to choose to trigger their adverts. However, Latanya Sweeney
claims that more research is needed. She also suggests possible blame on the search engine’s algorithms and financial interests with advertisers.