News

No it’s not duty free - it’s all because Pringles aren’t actually Potato Chips (a high court judge says so!), and as such are exempt from VAT!

Meanwhile Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation have decided - after seven years of debate - what qualifies as a proper tomato.

Read all about both here

Police were called out to a 999 call after a mysterious bright stationary object appeared in the night sky over the valleys.

The police have recorded the calls as a moment of genius - you can hear them here.

It goes something like this:

Control Room: “South Wales Police, what’s your emergency?”

Caller: “It’s not really. I just need to inform you that across the mountain there’s a bright stationary object.”

Control room: “Right.”

Caller: “If you’ve got a couple of minutes perhaps you could find out what it is? It’s been there at least half an hour and it’s still there.”

Control: “It’s been there for half an hour. Right. Is it actually on the mountain or in the sky?”

Caller: “It’s in the air.”

Control: “I will send someone up there now to check it out.”

Caller: “OK.”

The mystery was soon solved, as the exchange between control and an officer at the scene, makes clear.

Control: “Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?”

Officer: “Yes, it’s the moon. Over.”

Fantastic, but the police are using it to highlight that 999 should only be used in EMERGENCIES, unlike:

• The caller who rang asking for help when they wanted to vote for Rhydian on the TV programme X-Factor (she needed locking up if you ask me!)
• The caller that wanted a pound for their shopping trolley (have they not got one of those keyring pound things?!)

Instead of saying “South Wales Police, how can I help?”, control room staff now say “South Wales Police what is your emergency?”

Since the change, they have reported a 10% drop in 999 calls.

I don’t understand Cricket, never have - but in the spirit of recent years attendance to sporting events we know nothing about - I will be attending a match soon. A Test for that matter, the Third day of the Third Test against South Africa!

But I was shocked to see that in Cricket you can change the result of a game some two years after it was played!

From what I understand, the Pakistan team were accused of ball-tampering during a game in 2006. So they all went in for tea, after which the Pakistan team refused to come out… (I hope they did eventually come out and weren’t waiting for this result!!).

I can fully understand why people are getting in a stress about this (even knowing nothing about cricket), the rules state (apparently) that if you refuse to play you lose the game (seems fair), but if the game is abandoned then it’s a draw.

So, you see the boys sat there supping cups of tea, they’re plenty of points down (don’t expect me to understand cricket scoring!):

“You know lads, we’re having a shocker, those lads back in 2006 did it. Lets refuse to go out - best of a bad job, we’ll get a draw!”

In a statement the former Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board said:

“I do resent the comments that we refused to go out to play.

“We delayed coming out to play and informed the English Cricket Board (ECB) and referee three times that we were ready to return to the field.”

Apparently the captain of the Pakistan team was later cleared of ball-tampering, but banned for some games for bring the game into disrepute by initially refusing to play.

A formal announcement about the result of the game (two years on!) is expected later today!

I love it!! I’ve heard of beer goggles and beer exploits - but trying to row from one country to another (Denmark to Sweden across a 3 mile busy shipping lane!) beats them all!

After falling asleep the 78 year old unnamed man drifted until he was recsued by the coastguard - after sobering up he was sent back to Sweden on the ferry - which he couldn’t afford the night before and resulted in him stealing the dinghy! The owner of the dinghy is not pressing charges (he probably finds it as funny as I do!)
photo credit: flattop341

I loved this story on the BBC today, a stray parrot has talked his way home!

Yosuke, a red-tailed African Grey parrot was captured after sitting on a woman’s backyard fence near Tokyo. Once captured it began singing popular children’s songs before starting to repeat it’s name and address!!

Apparently it’s believed African Grey’s have the cognitive ability of six-year-olds… I’d love to see how he’d get on with a first day at school!!

I had to laugh when I read this news story on the BBC - “Cat and Mouse Blamed for Blackout“.

It would appear that a 72-hour blackout in Tirana was caused when a cat chased a mouse into an area of high voltage cables and got electrocuted.

Power cuts are nothing uncommon in Albania, but normally the authorities can only blame droughts and the state of the equipment in a post-communist era. This time it’s a little different!
photo credit: Peter Kaminski

I’m a bit of a snooker fan, always have been - just don’t get time to watch it so much now… But the bit I’ve watched today, all 9 minutes of it was some of the best snooker ever played… Just watch Ronnie O’Sullivan earn himself his brand new sports car clearing up a maximum break in sub 10 minutes!

photo credit: DubaiFM