BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 06:06 PM

""TORONTO - Forcing would-be Canadians to pledge allegiance to the Queen before they can become citizens is discriminatory and a violation of their constitutional rights, three permanent residents are set to argue in court on Friday.

All maintain they oppose the oath on religious or conscientious grounds, saying pledging allegiance to Canada should be sufficient.""


Canada-Is oath to queen discriminatory?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 06:07 PM

Sorry, cookie issues. last Guest was me.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Jul 13 - 07:00 AM

not BS, but definitely worth recording Australia's biggest orchestra breaks world record

Australia has a new world record with more than 7,200 musicians joining the World's Biggest Orchestra event at Brisbane's Lang Park.

As the conductor said, he was going to be conducting very basic ...

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Aug 13 - 08:33 PM

'Fatberg' the size of a double-decker bus pulled from London sewer A 15-tonne ball of congealed food fat, dubbed Britain's biggest ever "fatberg", has been dredged up from a London sewer.

It took 10 days to remove the double-decker-bus-sized lump of food fat mixed with other waste, chiefly sanitary wipes, from under a major road in Kingston, southwest London, according to Utility company Thames Water.

Thames Water says it is the biggest lump of fat ever removed from the drains.

Left there much longer, it could have caused raw sewage to start flooding homes, streets and businesses throughout the area. (read on)

for some strange reason the video has been removed by the user, but a CCTV picture is still available

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Sep 13 - 04:40 AM

Rise of computerised toilets leads to hacking concerns The rise of computerised toilets in Japan has sparked concerns by a US security company that the devices could be hacked by saboteurs who could make the commodes repeatedly flush or squirt water at the user.

sandra (with nothing to say about this topic)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Sep 13 - 10:24 AM

Uneasy sits . . .

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 01 Sep 13 - 04:16 PM

The study documents in humans what neuroscientists have reported for some time: animals' sodium (salt) intake is controlled by networks in the brain and not by the salt in one's food. The findings have important implications for future U.S. nutrition policy directed at sodium intake.

Findings from the new study, entitled "Normal Range of Human Dietary Sodium Intake: A Perspective Based on 24-hour Urinary Sodium Excretion Worldwide," is published online in advance of the print edition of the American Journal of Hypertension


Salt and the body

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Sep 13 - 10:34 PM

100-year-old woman shows up for show and tell A brother and sister bring in their 100-year-old family friend to school as part of show and tell.

I loved the questions

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Jan 14 - 02:07 AM

Emus take a dip at Monkey Mia Warm weather in Western Australia's Shark Bay region has attracted some unusual beach goers to Monkey Mia.

With the mercury hovering around the 40s early this week, local Katie Hughes says five emus decided to take a dip and cool their heels yesterday.

"It was really really hot, probably around 41 degrees, and we noticed them having a stroll along beach," she said.

"They got to the water's edge, had a look, had a look at each other and then in they went!

"They crouched down and had a bit of a roll around to cool off.

"It was awesome, I just had to take a photo."

Ms Hughes says the emus are regular visitors to the beach but she has never seen them go for a swim.

It's the height of wildlife season in Monkey Mia, which attracts plenty of tourists for its dolphins.

"There are tonnes of other animals around at the moment," said Ms Hughes.

"We've got a good selection of dolphins and dugongs, we're seeing them every day and they're pretty rare.

"We've got a couple of species of turtles, sharks and an amazing number of rays too."

The Bureau is forecasting cooler weather for the region for the rest of this week, with temperatures dropping to the 30s.


(38C = 100F, 41 = around 113F nasty hot weather, low humidity

youtube has a few videos of emus swimming

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 14 - 06:13 PM

That's a great story, thanks!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 22 Jan 14 - 06:12 AM

I recall the comic, the late Linda Smith say that when she lived near to where I come from, she saw a headline on the front of the local paper.

Worksop man dies from natural causes.

Ok, not recent but presumably still the topic of conversation in the pubs and clubs around town. The last thing anything there happened of note is when as a compere, I was on stage in Worksop introducing Harvey Andrews and the microphone picked up a huge fart as I was walking on....   400 people, most actually knew me... in that theatre that night.

Still, at least it wasn't at the end of his set......

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 12:49 AM

Thieves steal Bendigo rock from Canberra's National Rock Garden A quartz rock weighing three-quarters of a tonne has been stolen from the National Rock Garden in Canberra.

The National Rock Garden is designed to showcase rocks from all over Australia.

The stolen rock from Bendigo was donated by a mining company to symbolise Victoria's gold rush history.

Rock Garden chairman Brad Pillans says flecks of gold in the rock may have attracted thieves.

'They've trucked the rock away. They may well try to crush it up and extract the gold," he said.

"The silly thing is they've caused thousands of dollars of damage to the exhibition and taken a rock which will be very difficult to replace, all for perhaps $200 worth of gold."

Professor Pillans says some of the rocks in the garden are up to 16 tonnes in weight.

"The display actually consisted of three rocks, one of which is six tonnes, so that wasn't touched," he said.

"But the most spectacular rock, which was actually mounted on top of the larger rock and secured with three metal pins, would have required a crane."

Professor Pillans is urging Canberrans to keep an eye out for the rock which is predominantly white in colour.

"It would be a bit unusual for your neighbour to turn up with a big white rock," he said.

"If someone's seen a big white rock unloaded in someone's front garden we'd like to hear about it."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Mar 14 - 03:22 AM

Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man on Hong Kong's future 

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Ed T
Date: 02 Mar 14 - 07:05 PM

diabetes medical news 

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 03:18 PM

Snake vs Crocodile: A Dramatic Showdown

Two photographers (folks with camera phones, I suspect) snapped some epic photos recently. The cutlines tell most of the story, but there is a bit of article below the photos.

Ms Corlis says the scuffle attracted a lot of attention, with several people taking pictures on their smart phones. She says everyone got quite close to the action. "We were probably a little too brave, a little too crazy," she said.

She says the sight became even more interesting once the snake had finished eating. "You could see the crocodile in the snake's belly which I think was probably the more remarkable thing. You could actually see its legs and see its scales and everything, it was just amazing."

Ms Corlis says the incident has not discouraged her from swimming at Lake Moondarra in the future. "I think I'll just send someone else in first."

(I revised their non-paragraph breaks between sentences for readability.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 09:32 PM

Stilly, it's good to see you are getting your news from my favourite source!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Mar 14 - 12:49 AM

Sandra, I found that off to the side after reading your story about the stolen piece of ore. What a lot of work and what a lot of damage some fools will do in idiotic get rich schemes.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Mar 14 - 12:16 AM

Escaped water buffaloes wander down busy inner suburban street Firefighters have rounded up two water buffaloes that escaped a film set and were running through the inner-city Sydney suburb of Newtown.

Pictures of the animals running down one of the suburb's busiest streets, King Street, were shared on social media as they surprised motorists earlier this morning.

Abril Felman witnessed the havoc on King Street at Newtown and described the scene to the ABC.

"They were just on the streets, just running," she said.

"Cars were just stopped and watching them go through, and there was this jeep with filming equipment running behind them."

Later, Fire and Rescue New South Wales said a crew - who happened to be returning to base at the time - noticed the animals on Carillon Avenue.

"The firefighters have used a bit of initiative," said spokesman Ian Krimmer.

"They've taken some of the ladders off the fire trucks and used those as moveable gates to corral the two buffalo into a front yard of a house."

Animal handlers arrived and took them away about an hour later.

It is understood the water buffaloes escaped from a set at nearby Sydney Park. (photos & video)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Apr 14 - 08:55 PM

Anzac Day: World War I replica sheepskin vests show home front support An Anzac centenary project is shining a light on the ingenuity, generosity and compassion of Australians who supported World War I diggers from the home front.

A digger wrote home to his family, "It feels like it's soaked up the Australian sunshine."

It was perhaps the most evocative testimonial to the morale-boosting properties of sheepskin vests that were distributed to every Australian soldier who fought in the 1914-18 war.

John Gillam and Yvonne Fletcher came across it while researching a book, Men in Sheepskin - The Centenary of the Digger's Vest, about this often-overlooked act of warmth that brought great comfort to the diggers during the bone-chilling winters of World War I.

Mr Gillam says more than 100,000 soldiers from all armies died from the cold during the winter of 1916-17 - which at the time was the worst freeze to hit Europe for 60 years.

Grim reality of hostile terrain and weather

Ms Fletcher says diggers spent days and weeks standing in muddy trenches and virtually freezing to death.
Video: ANZAC Day: The sheepskin vests that saved lives (ABC News)

"In a letter home in March 1917, Private Dudley Parker said the water was often so deep he needed gum boots up to his waist," she said .

"He joked to his family that someone thought they'd seen a submarine."

Behind that black humour was the unrelentingly grim reality of a war being waged a long way from home, in unfamiliar terrain and in hostile weather.

John Land, curator of the Australian Army Infantry Museum at the Lone Pine Barracks in Singleton, says a lack of adequate warm clothes spurred local communities into action.

"As the war and the winters rolled on, family and friends of Australian servicemen and women rallied to the cause, knitting socks and scarves and balaclavas, anything to keep them warm," he said.

Ms Fletcher says then they borrowed an idea they had seen used by other armies: sheep and goat-skin fleeces.

"Various prototypes were produced for public comment before settling on a practical and robust design that included a high collar around the neck and a low-cut back to protect the kidneys," she said.
Army of volunteers

Woolgrowers gave the campaign some real momentum by donating half a million sheepskins.

Wool brokers collected them, arranged tanning, and the Red Cross then co-ordinated an army of volunteers to stitch them together.

"Everything was easy to hand - even the belts and buckles were horse bridles," Mr Gillam said.

"Each vest took three sheepskins and they worked out at seven shillings each - around a days' pay at that time."

Sheep were not only involved in the production of the clothes, they also featured in the fundraising side of things.

"The young children of one farmer from Braidwood ... took their pet lamb to the saleyards to raise money for the soldier's vests," Ms Fletcher said.

"Of course it was auctioned over and over again. Nobody wanted that sheep and in the end the auctioneer gave the children back their lamb - and the eight pounds they'd raised."

'From the farm gate to the front'

And now that very tangible Anzac link between the bush and the battlefields of Europe is being celebrated with the production and sale of Diggers Vests in the lead-up to the Gallipoli Centenary.

The authors say it turned out to be a bit like the search for the Tasmanian Tiger.

"Could we bring this thing back to life in time for the Gallipoli Centenary and could we find someone who could accurately replicate the original sheepskin vests?" Mr Gillam said.

They are being manufactured by Mortels Sheepskins at Thornton in the Hunter Valley, and part of the proceeds will go to Defence Care, a charity that looks after defence personnel and their families.

Tony Mortel says he is honoured the family company is able to be part of such a memorable project and delighted that one of the vests has been presented to the Australian Army Infantry Museum at Singleton.

"It honours not only the efforts of our fighting men and women in the First World War, but the remarkable volunteer effort that stretched all the way from the farm gate to the front," he said.

- Watch Pete Lewis's full report "Stitch in Time" on Landline at midday on Sunday on ABC1.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 May 14 - 02:35 AM

Australia - Rock art - First contact with Europeans through Indigenous eyes A series of rediscovered images reveals how Indigenous people viewed early European settlers. As Belinda Tromp writes photographer David Hancock, along with Indigenous elders, travelled to remote parts of the Arnhem Land plateau to unearth these rock paintings.

The painting inside a rock overhang shows a man with unusual headwear riding a horse.

The man is thought to be Ludwig Leichhardt, portrayed by an Aboriginal artist who observed the explorer passing through this remote Arnhem Land plateau in 1845. Having lost his hat early in his expedition, Leichhardt wore a canvas bag as a head covering.

Cleary the artist was fascinated by the horse, depicting the mare's wide stiff legged stance as it urinated.

In another rock painting, six men in wide-brimmed hats stand on a boat under a sunshade slung between sails. Along the deck are cargo boxes. Again the artist recalled in great detail what he'd seen - the vessel has an anchor chain and one of the men smokes a pipe.

These two paintings are among hundreds dotted across the vast Arnhem Land plateau east of Darwin that record the arrival of Europeans through indigenous eyes. (read on)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 05:40 AM

here I am, back at my favourite thread!
Train rescue: Commuters use people power to trapped free man People power has been used to free a man who became trapped between the platform and a train at a Perth station this morning.

Scores of passengers, together with staff at Stirling station, managed to tilt the carriage so the man could free his leg which was wedged in the gap.

The man was boarding a Perth-bound train at about 8:50am when he slipped and became stuck.

Transperth spokesman David Hynes said the man was boarding at the tail end of peak hour, but the train was still fairly busy.

"He stood in the doorway and as he was sort of taking up his position there, one leg slipped outside the door, slipped outside the gap, and he was stuck," he said.

"We alerted the driver, made sure the train didn't move.

"Then our staff who were there at the time got the passengers, and there were lots of them, off the train, and organised them to sort of rock, tilt the train backwards away from the platform so they were able to get him out and rescue him."

Mr Hynes said the train was stationary when he slipped.

An ambulance was called but the man was not taken to hospital. It is believed he did not sustain serious injuries.

Mr Hynes said it was not a problem caused by overcrowding.

He praised the actions of staff and passengers who assisted in freeing the man.

"Everyone sort of pitched in," he said.

"It was people power that saved someone from possibly quite serious injury."

CCTV footage

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Nov 14 - 12:24 AM

A koala climbs down from a tree, walks on the beach & watches the sea

Australian Broadcasting Commission North Queensland's Jamie Rule was on holiday with his family on Magnetic Island when a koala climbed down from a tree and went for a wander on the beach.

James Cook University's Professor Andrew Krockenberger and his team of researchers have been studying Magnetic Island's koala population for the past six years.   (read on - photos & video)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 08:47 PM

Heard on radio, actually, before looking it up.

Building a casino on Boston Harbor has been a big negotiation process. Looks like it might actually happen although some permits and permissions are not official yet.

This is what made me do a double take:
The company (Wynn) is using the site of a former Monsanto Company chemical plant. The construction process will include digging up an estimated 500,000 tons of polluted soil, and having it trucked away to officially designated (don't know how) landfills in other states and across the border to Quebec.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Aug 16 - 03:53 PM

Scary Lucy has been taken down from the pedestal.
Four years ago, a commissioned sculpture of Lucille Ball went up in a public park not far from her birthplace. Between then and now, opposition to the statue has reached such a pitch that the sculptor received death threats.
It is easy to find photos of Scary Lucy online. These images remind me that Lucille Ball, like many another comic, channeled aggression into her humor. Which is to say, the sculptor did an accurate representation of a comedy subtext that many people do not like shoved right in their faces.
The new Lucille Ball looks like Shirley Jones about to burst into song in "Oklahoma," I have to say.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Aug 16 - 06:24 PM

It didn't look remotely like her, anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Aug 16 - 12:32 PM

The News is calling for drenching downpours in Florida this week.

I suspect a hundred year flood of an already sea flooded Fla.

Look at the Doppler yourself.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 20 - 12:43 AM

It occurred to me today that I had a long-running thread called "I Read it in the Newspaper" that Joe closed because it was brutalized by spammers. I just took a look, and he's right - there were sometimes a couple dozen a day by the same spammer. Lots of porn links. Yuck. That was back when the BS section was open to non-members to post there. The last post was in August 2016.

The world has certainly changed in nearly-four years. In ways few of us could have predicted.