What's so good about, you woke me up just to tell me that?Monday, May 11, 2009
Parrot endangers 1000 jobs in Australia
A parrot is about to cost 1000 workers their jobs because the Federal Government in New South Wales has ordered a timber industry to be shut down to protect the bird.The unprecedented government intervention will see the jobs cut within days. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett's department issued a stop-work order to the New South Wales Government 10 days ago, a move the industry claims could wipe out the entire town of Deniliquin in the state's south. The Opposition says the move is overkill and has branded Mr Garrett a "warbling twit"."There are a lot of them out there," Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said of the parrots. "As one person put it to me this morning, you've got the warbling twit protecting the green leak parrot but sacrificing 1000 jobs."The Environment Department ordered New South Wales cease all clear felling of red gum in the Central Murray Darling region - timber used mainly for firewood and railway sleepers - due to concerns over the future of the parrot. Sometimes referred to as the green leek parrot, the social bird nests in the hollows of the red gums and is nationally listed as vulnerable.
With news video.
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Eye in the sky
Criminals may be used to looking over their shoulders for police, but a new crime-fighting tool introduced in Florida means they will now also be looking above their heads.Officers in the town of Palm Bay are being sent aloft on motorized paragliders to act as spies in the sky, in a first-of-its-kind mission code named Operation Soar.
Suspended beneath parachutes wearing lawnmower-style motors on their backs, they will patrol the skies looking for burglars, car thieves and missing children, equipped with radios, cameras and GPS navigation systems.
The seats of their unconventional aircraft have been specially bulletproofed and the officers have standby parachutes, to protect against criminals who may be tempted to use them for target practice.
The paraglider patrol idea was hatched after hopes of launching unmanned drones to conduct aerial surveillance over Palm Bay were shot down by the Federal Aviation Administration, due to safety fears.
"Our agency is pretty innovative, we like to think out of the box and experiment with new ideas. The more we fly these paragliders, the more uses we'll find for them," said Lieutenant Joe Eakins.
The $25,000 gas-powered machines, purchased using proceeds from the sale of criminal assets, can fly at speeds up to 63mph and at altitudes anywhere between two inches off the ground and 18,000ft.
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Indian village with 250 sets of twins
Doctors are trying to unravel the mystery of an Indian village boasting 250 sets of twins born to just 2,000 families..
6-year-old saves grandma
Brave six-year-old Karen Lewis has been thanked by her grandmother for saving her life after picking up vital warning signs that she was having a stroke – because of an advert on TV.The youngster, from Shrewsbury, knew immediately from the look on her beloved nanna’s face that something was not right. She ran to a neighbors’s house for assistance before calling 999 for help. Disabled Heather Lewis, 63, was on the stairs of her home in Grinshill Drive, Shrewsbury, when she suddenly was unable to lift her arms. Her speech began to slur and her face drooped to one side.
Luckily for her granddaughter Karen was close by and realized what was happening. As Mrs Lewis’s daughter Cheryl , who is also disabled, and husband Des struggled to get her down the stairs, Karen ran immediately outside to call for assistance from a neighbor. Then, she ran back to the house to start dialling 999 for an ambulance.
Mrs Lewis paid tribute to her "little star" and said she owed the six-year-old her life. She said: "I went dizzy and I started to fall. My daughter managed to grab me. My granddaughter said ‘nanny stay still I think you’re like the TV advert, you need an ambulance’.
"If it wasn’t for Karen I don’t think I would be here now. I am really proud of her. I think she has saved my life. She’s so brave and she’s a little star."
The grandmother said she was also grateful to the TV advert which describes the tell-tale signs of a stroke and what to do; which are facial weakness, arm weakness, speech problems and time to call 999. They are remembered under the shorthand abbreviation FAST.
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Sunday, May 10, 2009
In The News
Donations flood in to honest cabbie
Hundreds of Argentinians have been donating money to a taxi driver who found more than £20,000 in cash in his cab and returned it to its owners.
The donations started after a website was set up calling for gestures of gratitude for his "extraordinary act of honesty", reports the BBC.
So far the equivalent of nearly £10,000 has been donated, according to the site.
Santiago Gori, a taxi driver in the coastal city of La Plata, found £21,600 in a bag in the back of his taxi after driving an elderly couple a short distance.
A few days later he managed to locate his passengers again and he returned the bag. For Argentines used to corruption at all levels of society, this was an extraordinary story.
Two young advertising agency employees decided to set up a website to thank Mr Gori further for his exemplary behavior.
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Ex-midwife, 90, helps deliver great granddaughter
A 90-year-old former midwife helped deliver her own great granddaughter.
When Maggie Jones received a phone call saying her granddaughter had gone into labour, she was happy to provide moral support.
The last thing the she expected was that her decades-old professional experience was about to be put to the test once more, reports the Daily Mail.
But she was left with no choice by the speed of events and ended up helping deliver Kathy Shah's baby Carys on the living room floor.
Mrs Jones, who worked as a midwife in the Second World War and had not delivered a baby for 50 years, said: "I thought to myself, 'Maggie, it's time to wash your hands and don your overalls', and I just jumped right in to help in whatever way I could.
"Thankfully we didn't have any problems and I was just thrilled to be able to welcome little Carys into the world."
Mrs Shah already has 19-month-old son Dylan with her husband Keval, a banker. They had planned a home birth for their second child.
But she went into labour so quickly it was too late to call the midwife, so Mrs Shah told her husband to call her grandmother, who lives next door to them in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
Mrs Jones rushed round and just 40 minutes later she was cradling Carys, who was born weighing 7lb 7oz.
Mrs Shah, 32, said: "We're so lucky that my gran lives next door - she was totally amazing and just so calm. I don't know what we would have done without her."
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Centenarian's Birthday
A 100-year-old woman has just discovered that she has been marking her birthday on the wrong day all of her life.
Great-great-grandmother Emily Donoghue, of Llantarnam, near Cwmbran in Wales, had always insisted she was born on 3 May, reports the BBC.
But when her son John had to produce a birth certificate so she could receive a telegram from the Queen he discovered she was actually born two days later.
"I think she must have been celebrating on the third all her life," he said. To mark her 100th birthday her family celebrated on both days.
They took her out for tea on the third and then two days later a party was held in her honour at the Mayflower residential home, where she has lived for the last five years.
Mr Donoghue, 78, said: "We had to produce a birth certificate to inform the Queen so my mother would get a telegram.
"When we looked on there it was, 5 May, and she's been celebrating on 3 May.
"We couldn't make it out because she'd insisted it was the third and we took her word for it. Nobody bothered to look for the birth certificate until we had to send it off."
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Hundreds of Argentinians have been donating money to a taxi driver who found more than £20,000 in cash in his cab and returned it to its owners.
The donations started after a website was set up calling for gestures of gratitude for his "extraordinary act of honesty", reports the BBC.
So far the equivalent of nearly £10,000 has been donated, according to the site.
Santiago Gori, a taxi driver in the coastal city of La Plata, found £21,600 in a bag in the back of his taxi after driving an elderly couple a short distance.
A few days later he managed to locate his passengers again and he returned the bag. For Argentines used to corruption at all levels of society, this was an extraordinary story.
Two young advertising agency employees decided to set up a website to thank Mr Gori further for his exemplary behavior.
.
Ex-midwife, 90, helps deliver great granddaughter
A 90-year-old former midwife helped deliver her own great granddaughter.
When Maggie Jones received a phone call saying her granddaughter had gone into labour, she was happy to provide moral support.
The last thing the she expected was that her decades-old professional experience was about to be put to the test once more, reports the Daily Mail.
But she was left with no choice by the speed of events and ended up helping deliver Kathy Shah's baby Carys on the living room floor.
Mrs Jones, who worked as a midwife in the Second World War and had not delivered a baby for 50 years, said: "I thought to myself, 'Maggie, it's time to wash your hands and don your overalls', and I just jumped right in to help in whatever way I could.
"Thankfully we didn't have any problems and I was just thrilled to be able to welcome little Carys into the world."
Mrs Shah already has 19-month-old son Dylan with her husband Keval, a banker. They had planned a home birth for their second child.
But she went into labour so quickly it was too late to call the midwife, so Mrs Shah told her husband to call her grandmother, who lives next door to them in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
Mrs Jones rushed round and just 40 minutes later she was cradling Carys, who was born weighing 7lb 7oz.
Mrs Shah, 32, said: "We're so lucky that my gran lives next door - she was totally amazing and just so calm. I don't know what we would have done without her."
.
Centenarian's Birthday
A 100-year-old woman has just discovered that she has been marking her birthday on the wrong day all of her life.
Great-great-grandmother Emily Donoghue, of Llantarnam, near Cwmbran in Wales, had always insisted she was born on 3 May, reports the BBC.
But when her son John had to produce a birth certificate so she could receive a telegram from the Queen he discovered she was actually born two days later.
"I think she must have been celebrating on the third all her life," he said. To mark her 100th birthday her family celebrated on both days.
They took her out for tea on the third and then two days later a party was held in her honour at the Mayflower residential home, where she has lived for the last five years.
Mr Donoghue, 78, said: "We had to produce a birth certificate to inform the Queen so my mother would get a telegram.
"When we looked on there it was, 5 May, and she's been celebrating on 3 May.
"We couldn't make it out because she'd insisted it was the third and we took her word for it. Nobody bothered to look for the birth certificate until we had to send it off."
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