Whoops…..Caught Out!

Owner of Britain's last Temperance Bar admits drink driving

The owner of Britain’s last temperance bar has admitted drink driving.

Christopher Law, 52, who owns the 120-year-old Fitzpatrick’s bar in Rawtenstall, Lancs, pleaded guilty to the charge at Burnley magistrates’ court. He was banned from driving for 17 months.
Temperance bars, which originated in Lancashire in the late 19th century, advocated abstinence from alcohol, often asking patrons to sign a pledge and renounce the demon drink. They were also the first outlet for Vimto in the early 20th century.
Mr Law recently appeared on television with “The Hairy Bikers”, Dave Myers and Si King, extolling the virtues of the wide range of non-alcoholic drinks which he serves.
He showed almost twice the legal alcohol limit when stopped by police at 2.30am in Burnley last month. He was fined £110 and ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a £20 victim surcharge.
Contacted at his bar today, Mr Law said that he did not think he had been breaking the law despite drinking about “three-quarters of a bottle of wine”.
“I didn’t think I was over the limit,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
He also questioned the publicity surrounding the case, insisting: “It is just a drinking-driving offence”. He declined to comment further.
Mr Law, formerly a pipe fitter, bought Fitzpatrick’s bar 12 years ago. It has been selling remedies and non-alcoholic drinks such as sarsaparilla and dandelion and burdock since 1890 and attracts tourists from across the world.
Its shop sells Blackbeer and Raisin, Ginger Beer, Cream Soda, Lemon and Ginger and Blood Tonic. The temperance movement declined after a wave of imported, sugary drinks from the United States.
The Rawtenstall bar was the only one of the Fitzpatrick family’s 30 bars to survive. The family of herbalists were from Dublin, but moved to Lancashire.
In an earlier interview, Mr Law said: “I used to come in here as a kid.
“I was at a point in my life when I just knew that I had to take it on.

Glow In The Dark….Neigh??

Donkeys get glow-in-the-dark eartags

Hundreds of donkeys are to be fitted with glow-in-the-dark ear tags in Botswana to stop accidents on rural roads at night.

About 500 of the animals will be fitted with the reflective tags in the north of the country where one in ten crashes is donkey-related, reports The Mirror.
The UK-based Society For The Protection Of Animals Abroad is paying for the Maun Animal Welfare Society, in Botswana, to carry out the project.
Laura Higham, outreach veterinary advisor for SPANA, said: "The people that own working donkeys are some of the very poorest in Botswana's society and often have no choice other than to let their animals roam freely in search of food in the sparse desert environment.
"This practice is essential, but obviously makes the donkeys vulnerable to accidents and we hope that this simple solution will help reduce the number of collisions caused by the animals every year."
The charities hope the project will be adopted in other parts of the country, and will be the first step towards making reflective tags a legal requirement for freely roaming livestock.

Spoil Sports??

Germany to toughen laws on bestiality

Germany is set to tighten its laws against bestiality in a bid to improve animal welfare.

Bestiality was removed from Germany's penal code in 1969 and since then has only been against the law if "significant harm" is inflicted on the animal.
But Hans-Michael Goldmann, head of the parliamentary commission looking into the subject, told AFP he wanted to "ban bestiality in a draft law on animal protection".
According to left-leaning daily Tageszeitung (TAZ), the new legislation will make bestiality punishable by a fine of up to 25,000 euros (£20,000).
The act will no longer depend on whether harm is inflicted, but rather on whether the animal is forced to commit "actions alien to the species" according to the draft legislation.
A spokesman for the agriculture ministry told a regular government briefing that the new legislation aims to clarify the legal position.
"With this explicit ban, it will be easier to impose penalties and to improve animal protection," Goldmann told mass circulation Bild.
But the president of a group representing people who engage in the act of bestiality said he would take legal action.
"It is unthinkable that any sexual act with an animal is punished without proof that the animal has come to any harm," Michael Kiok said in an interview with the TAZ.

A Bit Of A Shock!!

Belgian discovers his wife used to be a man after 19 years

A Belgian is seeking to have his marriage annulled after discovering that his Indonesian wife of 19 years had been born a man.

The man, only named as Jan, married Monica, his family's former au pair in a previous marriage, in 1993 despite legal difficulties raised by the Belgian immigration authorities.
But it was only in recent weeks that he discovered that his wife had originally been a man and had undergone a sex change.
"I feel I've been assaulted," he told the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.
"I brought her to Belgium. That was not easy. The Belgian courts had serious doubts about the authenticity of her birth and her identity papers, but eventually they accepted it anyway. I thought she was an attractive woman, all woman. She had no male traits."
Jan, 64, said that he and his wife had decided not to have children because he had two by his previous marriage and she fooled him by pretending to menstruate, using sanitary towels, "to conceal the truth".
"Even during sex, I never noticed anything," he said.
For many years the couple lived a normal family life and Monica, 48, was like a "big sister" to his children until their marriage started to come under strain when she got a new full-time job.
"Monica began to change very much," he said.
"My oldest son saw her sometimes at a nightclub. She began to wear very flashy clothes, those ultra-short skirts or tiny tops, so her abdomen was completely exposed."
Finally rumours began to surface and after Jan found "amorous messages" from other men on her computer, he confronted her in a violent row that led to the police being called.
"A friend told me that he had heard that Monica was actually a sex-changed man. I could not believe it. My son heard similar rumours," he said.
"I pushed her against the wall and said: Now I know the truth. Are you a man? She then announced that she was born as a boy and that she had been operated on. She was now a woman, and so she did not need to tell me about her past as a man. My world collapsed. That evening came to blows. The police came."
Jan, who is undergoing psychiatric treatment following the discovery, has started legal proceedings to have the marriage annulled but the Belgian courts have so far refused to allow him to turn her out of the familiy home.
"That person has deliberately deceived him for years, even scammed. Presumably she has also forged documents used here to get a residence permit. The children, who for years have lived with her, are devastated," said his Liliane Verjauw, his lawyer.

It’s A Steal!

Malware Stealing Passwords from File-Sharing Sites

TrendLabs’ threat response engineer is warning about the PASSTEAL malware, which is currently spreading on the Internet as key generators for paid applications, popular e-books, and other files people usually download from file-sharing sites.
The threat in question has been described as malware which employs some password recovery instruments in order to steal passwords that its victims store in their browsers.

The company found out that a number of PASSTEAL malware versions use social engineering lures like variants disguised as key generators for paid apps. TrendMicro team identified “WebBrowserPassView” and “PasswordFox” as two of the password recovery instruments within PASSTEAL. In the meantime, security experts warn about the possibility that people who have developed PASSTEAL could also be using other recovery instruments.

Most people use the same password across various websites, which can certainly help them to remember it, but this still increases the risk of data theft. Of course, for better security, Internet users are recommended to use various login credentials for their accounts and create strong and easy-to-remember passwords. The experts also recommend users to use features offered by the browsers that can help protect private information. For instance, Mozilla Firefox has a master password feature which enables encryption in order to prevent password recovery instruments to easily access account data stored in browsers.

People who are recommended to especially watch out for password stealing malware like PASSTEAL are those who share passwords across many Internet accounts, and those who forget that password sharing is a bad idea.

Trumped??

Trump did not silence Bohemian Rhapsody video

Hirsute billionaire Donald Trump has said that he he did not use his considerable financial muscle to suppress a YouTube video which depicts him as a bully who sings a version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

According to Herald Scotland, the YouTube clip was created last March to protest Trump's plan to create a £750 million golf resort in Aberdeenshire. The video was given the blessing of Queen guitarist Brian May so it could not be pulled on copyright.

The video has Donald Trump singing of his relentless determination and unparalleled ego in his battle for the 'The Great Dunes of Scotland.' It used a Spitting Image-like version of Trump.

YouTube has pulled the video and the word on the street was that Trump had made the order.

However, it is starting to look like the whole YouTube pulling might have been a publicity stunt by the group which is trying to stop the golf resort.

The group behind it has decided to bring it out as a single and it has been registered with iTunes.

Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of Trump International Golf Links Scotland, said Trump hadn't complained about the video. She said that it had nothing to do with Trump who couldn't care less about the song.

A week ago she dismissed it as a tired, rehashed publicity stunt which further reinforces the lack of credibility of the small group of detractors behind it. She added that the song only serves to hurt the reputation of Scotland and its people.

So, where did the news come from that Trump had pulled the video? Hazel Cameron, an Edinburgh poet who had a hand in the video's creation, told Herald Scotland that a complaint had come from Trump or someone on his behalf.

She said that a complaint must have come from him as Trump must be unhappy about the video, and must have complained about it.

The protesters wanted to get the video back in the mainstream again and to bring more attention to what has happened, she said.

The video was originally removed in March after 29,000 views, but was uploaded again and reportedly had over 3,000 hits but last Thursday evening it was again removed, stating it was "in violation" of YouTube guidelines and "inappropriate".

YouTube told Spinner that the said the video was removed over a copyright infringement complaint but said users can "appeal the copyright takedown".

So, if Brian May gave his permission to use Bohemian Rhapsody then who has copyright over the video? Well, it could be the protesters.

The matter raises important questions. Is this real life? Is this just fantasy? If Trump was caught by the Obama landslide, did he try to escape from reality? Any way the wind blows...

Naked…Not If BBC!!

BBC hid the naked truth in pursuit of profit, claim naturists

Naturists have accused the BBC of "falsifying history" by putting clothes on the actors appearing in Andrew Marr's History of The World.

British Naturism said that the people of Africa, Ancient Egypt, Australia and other areas of the world would have been naked during many of the periods of history depicted in the reconstructions.
But in what is claimed to be BBC censorship, they are shown wearing costumes of animal skin and cloth often dreamt up by the corporation, says the organisation.
The group is now complaining to parliament after the BBC admitted it had been “obliged” to compromise accuracy to take into account “sensitivities” of audiences.
It described the move as another example of the “once proud bastion of journalistic integrity, sacrificing its reputation for commercial reasons”.
Malcolm Boura, BN's Research and Liaison Officer, said "It is astonishing that the BBC, that once proud bastion of journalistic integrity, should be sacrificing its reputation for commercial reasons.
"The 'world audience' referred to is overseas broadcasters paying the BBC to use programmes.
“We do not pay the BBC licence fee for the systematic falsification of history in the pursuit of profit.
"We do not pay the licence fee to be fed falsehoods intended to appease a misguided minority.
"The BBC is encouraging attitudes known to result in widespread and often serious harm, mainly to children and young people.
"The objective evidence on that is crystal clear. It is inexcusable.”
British Naturism (BN), with 10,500 members, is the UK's officially recognised naturist organisation.
The group said that in the Exodus from Africa, Ancient Egypt, the Minoans, the Caribs, the Australian aborigines, and members of a contemporary South American tribe, the costumes were the product of the BBC censors, not history.
Mr Boura said: "This series is not an isolated case, BBC programmes and the website often self censor to the point of dishonesty.
“Most of the censorship is hidden so without specialist knowledge few people realise what is being done.
"Whatever happened to the BBC's high ideals of education, journalistic integrity, and honesty?
"The BBC considers this conduct acceptable so we have written to the Culture Media and Sport Committee and we are pursuing this lack of honesty through to the BBC Trust as rapidly as possible.”
In a response to the compliant, Paul Kettle from BBC Audience Services, said he was sorry about the “compromises in accuracy” that the corporation felt “obliged” to make in the production of dramatic reconstructions.
"You are of course correct in pointing out that, in reality, natives in various scenes in the early part of the series would have been naked,” he said.
"But in making a series like this we have to take into account the sensitivities of the widest possible world audience."
But a spokesman said it was no excuse.
"The BBC has admitted to the systematic falsification of history for profit and for fear of upsetting anyone,” a spokesman said.
"There are at least six falsifications in the few episodes of Andrew Marr's History of the World that we have reviewed.
"The facts are actually very clear, as the BBC concedes. The costumes in many of the re-enactments are either dubious or quite undeniably false."

Burnt Offerings??

UK Police Arrested Man for Virtually Burning a Poppy

Free speech advocates have recently been infuriated by Kent coppers who arrested an individual for a Facebook post showing a photo of a burning poppy on Remembrance Sunday.

The police have issued a statement saying that an individual from Aylesham had been arrested on suspicion of malicious telecommunications. They confirmed that the man was arrested because of a posting on a social network website of a burning poppy. At the moment, the defendant is in police custody awaiting interview.

Apparently, the industry experts are a bit confused, since this is the sort of thing they expected to hear from the US authorities rather than the civilized parts of Kent. Twitter users have even pointed out that there’s no point of winning either World War if nowadays a person can be arrested for burning a poppy. They also admit that burning a poppy might be obnoxious, but still isn’t considered a criminal offence.

However, the UK police claimed that the arrest was made under section 127 of the Communications Act, under which an individual can be guilty of an offence in case he or she “send by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”. Still, it remains unclear what exactly is “grossly offensive”, rather than just offensive. Apparently, this word is purely subjective.

A Just Reward?

Baronet's son awarded £5.60 in £2.5m family castle sale row

The son of a baronet embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with his father over the sale of the family's £2 million estate was yesterday awarded just £5.60 a year by the High Court.

Philip Howard, 51, had sued his father Sir John Howard-Lawson, 78, four times in eight years over the sale of the 13th century Corby Castle estate in north Cumbria 18 years ago.
The business consultant launched his latest legal fight against his elderly father earlier this year over claims he had been duped out of his rightful “inheritance”.
The estate had been in the family for 400 years before it was sold owing to financial difficulties.
The Grade I listed mansion, set in park and farmland on the bank of the River Eden near Carlisle, was bought in 1611 by William Howard.
He was the third son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded for treason under Elizabeth I in 1572 after scheming to marry Mary, Queen of Scots.