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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Sheep in a bucket...


Is that a baa-cket on your head? Bungling sheep tries to get every last grain from its food container

Last updated at 12:42 AM on 13th August 2011
    This woolly wally probably felt rather sheepish... after getting a feed bucket stuck on his head.
The bungling animal ended up in the sticky situation as he tried to gobble up every last grain of food left in the container.
As he tilted the bucket up, the handle came down behind his head, wedging it firmly in place.
Feeling a bit sheepish: This woolly headed sheep got his head stuck in its feed bucket in a field near Berwick Upon Tweed, Scotland
Feeling a bit sheepish: This woolly headed sheep got his head stuck in its feed bucket in a field near Berwick Upon Tweed, Scotland
Photographer Phil McLean took the amusing snap as he passed this field near Berwick Upon Tweed, Scotland.
The 55-year-old, from Chirnside, said: ‘I had been looking for wildlife to photograph from my car when I spotted this sheep.
‘I can only assume that, in its eagerness to get the last drop of food, it tilted the bucket too much and the handle got stuck behind its head.
    ‘I watched it for a little while and it didn't seem too bothered.
    ‘There was a farmer on a quad bike in the field so I'm sure he would have come to the rescue.’ 
    He added: ‘I thought this scene was a little different and would probably raise a smile on people's faces.’


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025247/The-woolly-headed-sheep-got-stuck-feed-bucket.html#ixzz1UvuSpVjt

    Learner driver takes wrong turn during lesson - Austria


    • 12 August 2011, 13:39

    One 'L' of a manoeuvre

    Whoops /Europics
    A learner driver took a wrong turn during her driving lesson in Austria - straight into a fast flowing river.
    Christina Ritter, 17 - from Schladming - had just crossed a bridge over the River Enns with her firefighter dad Ralph in the passenger street when she suddenly swerved straight back to the bank.
    Her father's colleagues rescued the pair after they realised they were trapped in the river and dialled 999.
    "They'd gone over the bridge and for some reason the car did a U-turn at high speed and bounced down the embankment into the water," said one eye-witness.

    UK's most expensive home sold for record £140 million to Russian..


    Park Place: Britain's most expensive home sold for record £140m

    Britain’s most expensive home, Park Place, has been sold to a Russian buyer for a record £140m, it has emerged.

    Park Place in Henley: Park Place: Britain's most expensive sold for record £140m
    Park Place in Henley. The £140m sale price makes it Britain's most expensive house,  Photo: ALAMY
    The buyer, who has not been identified, has snapped up the 300 year-old Grade II-listed property, in the village of Remenham, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxon.
    The record sale also reportedly includes about 200 acres of the parklands, listed monuments, house, cottages, stables and a boat house.
    The £140m sale price makes it Britain’s most expensive house, eclipsing the £136m sale at One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, central London, earlier this year.
    Experts said the sale showed that the top end property market was still buoyant despite the global economic crisis.
    Park Place, which has 30,000 square feet of living space and is set in 570 acres, was bought for £42m in 2007 by Mike Spink, a developer who specialises in upmarket properties.
    At the time it was the most expensive house bought outside London.
    The developer has spent several million pounds undertaking extensive renovations of the property, which had a decaying exterior and was run down. He is also developing a second 300-acre phase of the estate, which is not part of the sale,
    The property, which backs on to the Thames river, was put on the market in 2006 for £45 million after plans to turn it into a luxury country club were rejected by Wokingham borough council following a vociferous campaign by residents.
    The main house dates from the early 18th century and was once owned by Frederick, Prince of Wales and eldest son of George II, and was substantially rebuilt in the late 1800s.
    Rooms still have the original huge stone fireplaces and stained glass windows. The ghost of Mary Blandy, who was accused of poisoning her father in 1752, is said to haunt the grounds.
    The original sale involved several outlying properties, including three houses, 10 tenanted cottages and a further eight in need of renovation.
    The property, which was used until 1998 as a boarding school, has two golf courses, a boathouse on the Thames and a stable block. It was recently used in the remake of the film St. Trinians.
    Earlier this month, Knight Frank, the estate agents, which has advised on the Park Place sale, published research that concluded that a "notable change is the beginning of international interest" from buyers, especially from Eastern Europeans.
    “Our experience is that the ripple effect from London is just beginning to reach the Home Counties where, after a slow start to the year, sales activity is rising," said Rupert Sweeting, Knight Frank’s Head of Country House Sales.
    “Generally, the market is still particularly price sensitive: if the price is right, a house will sell within six weeks of coming to the market.”
    Mr Spink declined to comment to the Financial Times. Both Knight Frank and Savills, which also advised on the sale, declined to comment.

    US police search for naked gunman...


    US police search for naked gunman

    The phrase "naked gun" is no longer just a movie reference in southwestern Illinois.

    US police search for naked gunman
    The suspect was nude and firing a handgun into the air outside an apartment just after midnight Photo: AP
    Officers responding to a report of shots fired early on Friday morning in nearby Cahokia quickly realised the anonymous tipster who made the call wasn't kidding: the suspected gunman wasn't wearing a single thread of clothing.
    Sergeant Ken Schrader said the man, who remains unidentified, and another male fled the scene in a Chevrolet Impala SS shortly after police responded.
    Officers pursued the suspect vehicle north on Illinois Route 3 at speeds over 100mph, Schrader said.
    The pursuit was called off after the vehicle was seen crossing the Mississippi River via the Poplar Street Bridge, which leads to downtown St Louis.
    A spokeswoman for the St Louis Metropolitan Police said via email on Friday that the department did not have any information about the incident.
    Cahokia Police are continuing their investigation of the incident, hoping to understand why the suspect, described as a black male, was nude and firing a handgun into the air outside an apartment just after midnight.
    Schrader said the incident is not the department's top priority, however, as officers are also investigating an unrelated bank robbery that occurred on Monday afternoon. He said he did not know if this summer's excessive heat or poor economy has affected crime in Cahokia.
    "But it's certainly not something you hear about everyday," he said before chuckling.

    200-year-old cookbook includes 'first ever' curry recipe


    Calf's head, pickled pig's feet and England's 'first ever' curry recipe... just some of the dishes found in 200-year-old cookbook

    Last updated at 9:17 AM on 13th August 2011

    A 200 year-old cookbook by the 18th century equivalent to 'Fanny Craddock' found in the back of an old kitchen drawer - contains the first ever English recipe for curry.
    The rare recipe book, 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy', lifts the lid on the unusual culinary tastes of Georgian Britain and includes baked calf's head and pickled pig's feet.
    The crumbling book, written by renowned author Hannah Glasse, dates back to 1796 and features hundreds of recipes and dozens of cures for ailments for things like rabies and the plague. 
    It also carries the first ever recipe seen in an English cookery book for curry.  
    The 200-year-old cookbook contains the first reference to making a curry
    The tome contains the first reference to making a curry in an English cookbook
    The recipe is remarkably similar to those seen today and includes frying two chickens with herbs and spices before adding cream and stock.  
    Among the recipes are cures for illnesses, including an antidote for rabies, entitled 'A certain Cure for the bite of a Mad Dog' and 'Receipt against the Plague'.  
    The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy is credited as being the first of its kind widely available in Britain and is responsible for the raft of subsequent cookery books.
    The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was first published in 1747 and features hundreds of recipes
    The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was first published in 1747 and features hundreds of recipes
    Great-grandmother Sylvia Sibley, 73, stumbled across the cookery book as she cleared out some of her late mother's possessions at her home in Plymouth, Devon. 
    Sylvia said: 'Some of the recipes are certainly very unusual and I wouldn't necessarily fancy them.  
    'I have read through it but the recipes are very complicated. The list of ingredients is very long and uses meat like 'calf's head' which I wouldn't fancy cooking.
    'It is interesting to see the difference between these recipes and modern cooking.'
    The cookery book is a later edition of one of the first ever widely available cookery books, which was first published in 1747.  
    In the introduction, Hannah Glasse describes her simple and accessible style and says the book is intended as an instruction manual for servants - which she refers to as 'the lower sort'.
    Sylvia Sibley stumbled across the cookery book as she cleared out some of her late mother's possessions at her home in Plymouth, Devon
    Sylvia Sibley stumbled across the cookery book as she cleared out some of her late mother's possessions
    She says: 'I have not wrote in the high profile style, I hope I shall be forgiven; for my intention is to instruct the lower sort and therefore must treat them in their own way.'
    Hannah goes on to lament the increased reliance on foreign cooking.
    She added: 'So much is the blind folly of this age that they would rather be imposed on by a French booby, than give encouragement to a good English cook!'
    One unusual recipe, called 'Calf's Head Surprize' instructs followers to 'Take a calf's head with the skin on, take a sharp knife and raise off the skin with as much meat from the bone as you can possibly get, so that it may appear like a whole head when stuffed. 
    'Stuff the head with ingredients including beef suet, veal, bacon and herbs' before putting the whole thing in the oven for two and a half hours'.
    Another reveals how to make a 'mock-turtle' - a stuffed and boiled calf's head split into three - and arranged on a dish and covered gravy.  
    A certain Cure for the bite of a Mad Dog can also be found in the miscellaneous section at the back, which includes a host of 'medical recipes'.
    It states: 'Let the patient be blooded at the arm nine or ten ounces.  
    'Take of the herb called in Latin lichen cinereus terrestris, in English, ash-coloured, ground liverwort, cleaned, dried and powdered, half an ounce. Of black pepper, powdered, two drachms. 
    'Mix these well together, and divide the powder into four doses, one of which must be taken every morning fasting, four mornings successively, in half a pint of cow's milk warm.  
    'After these four doses are taken, the patient must go into the cold bath, or a cold spring or river every morning fasting for a month.  'He must be dipped all over but not to stay in (with his head above water) longer than half a minute, if the water be very cold. After this he must go in three times a week for a fortnight longer.'  
    Mrs Sibley said she had not had the book valued but cookery books of a similar age have previously been sold for hundreds of pounds. 
    She added: 'I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now. I quite like the book and it is certainly very unusual so would like to hold onto it.  
    'I think it would be quite nice to hand it down to my children one day and keep it in the family.'


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2025362/Calfs-head-pickled-pigs-feet-Englands-curry-recipe--just-dishes-200-year-old-cookbook.html#ixzz1Uv4WeIsN

    Friday, August 12, 2011

    Italians ignore erupting volcano to sunbath on Sicily beach


    While Romans burn: Italian sunbathers sizzle on Sicily beach as Mount Etna erupts

    Last updated at 8:44 PM on 12th August 2011



    These Italian sunbathers seem to be making the most of their summer holidays
    So determined are they to enjoy their time on the beach, they don't even turn their heads to the sight of Europe's largest volcano erupting behind them.
    Or perhaps it's just volcano fatigue - after all, this is the sixth time Mt Etna has erupted in the last month.
    Relaxing: These sunbathers on a beach in Sicily seems unbothered by the eruption of Mt Etna in the distance
    Relaxing: These sunbathers on a beach in Sicily seems unbothered by the eruption of Mt Etna in the distance
    Eruption: This is the sixth time that Etna has gone off in the last month
    Eruption: This is the sixth time that Etna has gone off in the last month
    Spectacle: This group of tourists is transfixed by Etna's activity
    Spectacle: This group of tourists is transfixed by Etna's activity
    But the spectacle clearly still has the ability to attract some, as these pictures show crowds of tourists watching the eruptions on the island of Sicily
    And one man is brave enough to get right up close to the action in order to to take photographs.
      Although the eruptions look violent, they tend not to be particularly damaging, as the lava flows safely away in well-worn channels.
      But clouds of ash can make life unpleasant for residents and tourists in the picturesque villages crowded around the foot of the volcano.
      Intrepid: This man gets up close to the plume of ash to get the perfect picture
      Intrepid: This man gets up close to the plume of ash to get the perfect picture
      Lava: Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, so displays like this come relatively frequently
      Lava: Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, so displays like this come relatively frequently
      Tourists: Etna is one of Sicily's major attractions, despite its potentially deadly dangers
      Tourists: Etna is one of Sicily's major attractions, despite its potentially deadly dangers
      However, although some flights have been disrupted over the last few months, there has not been the same large-scale disruption to European airspace that was seen after the explosion of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull last year.
      Mt Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world - hardly a year goes by where it does not erupt in some way.
      But this constant activity has helped those who live near Etna to adapt to its presence and take its eruptions in their stride, as these photos show.


      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025410/While-Romans-burn-Italian-sunbathers-sizzle-Sicily-beach-Mount-Etna-erupts.html#ixzz1UqvAhpU9

      But I am wearing a helmet officer!


      You've heard of a bowl cut - now try a helmet: The motorcycle hard hats that look like a full head of hair


      Last updated at 11:20 AM on 12th August 2011
      Most people try to avoid getting helmet hair.
      But this wacky headgear will make your mane look smooth an polished at all times.
      A team of designers from Kazakhstan have come up with a line of 'skid lids' that are bound to turn heads while you ride your bike.
      Ginger-top: Biker might like this mane of red hair to wear on their head
      Ginger-top: Biker might like this mane of red hair to wear on their head
      Big-headed: The bowl cut design
      Big-headed: The bowl cut design
      They include a full head of red hair - complete with ears - a brown bob-style and a bald head sporting an earring in the ear.
        Or riders can go without hair at all and wear the brain helmet.
        Smooth top: Turn heads with this bald design - complete with an earring
        Smooth top: Turn heads with this bald design - complete with an earring
        Cheeky: This pert bottom helmet is bound to attract attention
        Cheeky: This pert bottom helmet is bound to attract attention
        Breast is best: This hilarious helmet features a nipple ring
        Breast is best: This hilarious helmet features a nipple ring
        But the more game might prefer one from the more adventurous range - including the pert bottom or a breast with a dangling nipple ring.
        Other designs include a cracked walnut, watermelon, 8 ball, bubble-wrap, tennis ball, globe or bowling ball.
        The designs were created by marketing agency Good! in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
        Going nutty: Have a cracked walnut atop your skull
        Going nutty: Have a cracked walnut atop your skull
        Smart choice: Riders might want to swap the hair helmet for this brain
        Smart choice: Riders might want to swap the hair helmet for this brain
        The company is now hoping to find a firm to manufacture them after being inundated with calls from bikers wondering how they could get their hands on them.
        Rimma Fhevtfova, of Good! said: 'We wanted to make something unusual. We wanted to make something that is outside the box and to try and think differently.
        'There is a growing cycling scene in Kazakhstan. It is much better than it was two years ago so we want to tap into that.
        Melon head: Go green with this watermelon - which has a chunk taken out of it
        Melon head: Go green with this watermelon - which has a chunk taken out of it
        On top of the world: This globe helmet could be popular if a bike loses his way
        On top of the world: This globe helmet could be popular if a bike loses his way
        Tennis mad: Riders will surely stand out with this tennis ball-inspired look
        Tennis mad: Riders will surely stand out with this tennis ball-inspired look
        'In the market, there are limited designs and producers and very few customers are using handmade or tailor made helmets of different styles.'

        Bikers in Central Asia and Kazakhstan may get their hands on the helmets soon, the rest of the world will have to wait.
        Designer Renat Abdrakhamov said: 'There are no real helmets yet, just the design. But once hundreds of thousands of people showed interest in the product we starting thinking about production.'
        Just popping out: The bubble-wrap design by Good!
        Just popping out: The bubble-wrap design by Good!
        Telling your future: The 8 ball design
        Telling your future: The 8 ball design
        Teeing off: A golf ball helmet
        Teeing off: A golf ball helmet
         


        Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025183/Youve-heard-bowl-cut--try-helmet-The-motorcycle-hard-hats-look-like-head-hair.html#ixzz1UpNuaals