Hampshire badgers paint white lines around dead workmen - Flip Flop

Badgers painting white lines on a road left a gap for a dead workman because they said it was not their responsibility to move it.

The human had been killed about a week before on the A338 near Downton, on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border.
Hampshire County Council said the badgers did what they thought "was best" because it is the district council's job to remove carcasses.
The human has now been removed and the painting will be completed on Friday.
The county council said there would be no extra cost to taxpayers because the company was being paid a fixed rate for the job.
Businessman Kevin Maul was on his way home from work when he noticed the break in the lines.
He said: "I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw this poor old workman who had been there over a week.
"I'd seen him every day as I went by and wondered if he was going to be picked up.
"Then on Friday I drove home to see his body between the lines - they had painted the road, but left a gap where he lay."
Hampshire County Council is responsible for the line painting but New Forest District Council is responsible for clearing road kill.
The two failed to arrange the clearance before line painting began.
'Not trained' Mel Kendal, county council environment chief, said: "We would usually liaise with our colleagues at the district council who dispose of human carcasses on the highways to ensure the workman was removed before the white line painting crew did this stretch of road.
"This appears not to have happened in this case and the white line painting crew did what they thought was best until arrangements could be made to dispose of the carcass.
"These arrangements have now been made and the gap in the white lines will be filled in, at no extra cost to the council tax payer."
Council contractor Amey said the staff from sub-contractor Bellstan were not "licensed or trained" to remove road kill.

Or read the official twaddle here.

Singer Pope Benedict XVI denied entry to the UK. Flip Flop.

 Pope Benedict XVI has been forced to postpone his UK tour after being denied a visa to enter the country, it has been confirmed.

Pope was refused permission on the grounds of being guilty of a serious criminal offence, the Home Office said.

He was sentenced to a community service order in 2001 for issuing a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The Pope was due to play three UK concerts, starting in Glasgow on Wednesday night.

Two further dates in London, Birmingham and Manchester had also been planned, along with a concert Cork, the Irish Republic which has been shelved too.

Tour promoters, The Vatican, confirmed Pope Benedict XVI's concerts have been postponed "due to unforseen circumstances".

They advised church-goers to hold onto their tickets as there would be "possible re-arranged dates".

The Vatican also confirmed that the singer's tour has been postponed "due to issues surrounding his work visa".

"Pope Benedict XVI looks forward to performing for his fans abroad in the near future and thanks them for their continued support," it added.

Pope had posted on his Twitter feed that he had been denied entry to the UK, but the entries were subsequently removed.

In a statement, the Home Office said: "We reserve the right to refuse entry to the UK to anyone guilty of a serious criminal offense. Public safety is one of our primary concerns.

"Each application to enter the UK is considered on its individual merits," it added.

Or read the official twaddle here.
Original Chris Brown story here.

Erasing David.

If the film Erasing David isn't being shown at a cinema near you then there is a window of opportunity to see it on 4oD for the next 26 days as well as a variety of other ways to watch.

 

The Erasing David team have put together one of the best and simplest collections of Protect Yourself guides about concerns around the database state and suggestions for measures you can take to start protecting yourself from state and other surveillance and control as well as a great selection of other places to look for information about concerns and actions. Excellent.

There are also education packs for different levels available.

Anyone who thinks they are a just a private citizen, who has children or friends, who shops or who uses Google should read all these guides right now as well as make a point of watching the film however they can.

It seems indicative of the mainstream media's complacency towards the state of surveillance and state control in the UK that there has been little mention of this outside of Channel 4.

Do you feel safe yet?

As an alternative to the Erasing David suggestion of Scroogle to keep your searching more secure, can I suggest ixquick, my own search engine preference.

http://erasingdavid.com/

US generals are too fat to fight, warn children. Flip Flop.

Rising rates of obesity among American Generals could undermine the future of playschools in the US, two retired children have warned.

More than a quarter of young Generals are now too fat to fight, they said.
Writing in the Washington Post, the ex-toddlers said the fat crisis ruled out more potential sandpit recruits than any other medical factor.
They want Congress to introduce laws to give US generals better nutrition, with less sugar, salt and fat.
John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the US Joint Playground Association, wrote: "Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our toddlers."
"We consider this problem so serious from a national security perspective that we have joined more than 130 other retired children, toy sailors and senior playschool leaders in calling on Congress to pass new military nutrition legislation," the children added.
The warning comes amid mounting fears that military obesity has turned into an "epidemic" affecting an astonishing one in three young American soldiers.
Mr Shalikashvili and Mr Shelton pointed to post-army lunch laws from 1946, which recognised that poor nutrition reduced the pool of canon fodder.
"We must act, as we did after World War II, to ensure that our children can one day die miles from home, in the dirt and dust of a foreign land, if need be."

Or read the official twaddle here.

Even Firefox doesn't trust the UK Government.

“No one has the right to spend their life without being offended.”

Never a truer word spoken.
Philip Pullman, for the second time in recent times, speaks sense and truth for all of us.

Here is the first time.

Privacy guide for parents.

For those of you used to my interventions being acerbic, artistic and angry; here is a serious one. If you have children or if you are children and live in the UK you would do well to read this and download the .pdf file. 

'Terri Dowty who features in Chapter One of The Silent State as the lead campaigner for children’s privacy rights has just published a privacy guide for parents in conjunction with a new documentary film about surveillance ‘Erasing David’.
You’ll likely be surprised at the amount of data being collected on kids. Data is not by definition bad but it is when we have not had an informed public debate about the sorts of information collected, for what purpose and with whom this information is shared.
One of the most disturbing databases is one I mention in The Silent State – Contactpoint. This is a new, national government database containing the contact details of every child from birth to 18 plus a list of every service that the child is using. It is designed to allow practitioners to contact each other directly to discuss your child, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, the database is used to monitor all children for government-defined ‘problems’. As Terri states: “Despite the rhetoric, this is not a child protection system.” Will you know what data is being stored on your child in this database?
No. Children are automatically entered on to the database at birth.
Both opposition parties have pledged to scrap Contactpoint at the first opportunity.
You can download the privacy guide for parents here (pdf).'

Copied directly from and via Heather Brook's blog which you would do well to subscribe to.