Constabulary photo e fit suffers a bad hair day

It should have been easy enough to spot the suspected criminals walking around with hair shaped like a lettuce and a fringe resembling a green barcode.

However the public alert for the unusual looking suspects was withdrawn yesterday when Hampshire Constabulary admitted it was experiencing “technical problems” with its e-fit software.

The police force came under fire for releasing “absolutely ridiculous” e-fits after a burglary suspect looked like he was wearing a lettuce on his head.

Officers said a technical problem caused the unusual hair colour and admitted it was not the “best quality”.However it appeared that the problem was more widespread after a series of images emerged with suspects sporting disastrous hairstyles and looking like computer characters from the 1990s.

A suspected robber, in his late teens, sported a fringe which looked like a barcode. Another alleged criminal appeared to have red eyes.

Hampshire Police issued the original e-fit, of the man with the lettuce-shaped hair, to try to trace a distraction burglar who stole £60 from an elderly woman in Stockbridge.Although the offender was described by his vctim as having wavy blonde/greying hair and being about 40 the image showed him with green hair and was described as “ludicrous” by residents.

A Hampshire police spokeswoman said: “We make every effort to ensure that the e-fits we circulate are as accurate and detailed as they possibly can be from the description provided by the witness.

“This is borne out by the quality and detail contained within the facial features.

“We are, though, currently experiencing technical problems with the quality of the hair and are waiting for an upgrade to the system from the company who provides us with the software.”

She went on: “We have a duty to do all we can to identify those involved in crime, prevent further occurrences and protect the public and while the hair on this image may not be of the best quality, it takes nothing from the overall clarity of the facial features.


“It would therefore be wrong to withhold the release of the e-fit just based on this technical issue.

“We would never release an e-fit a victim disagreed or was unhappy with and in this instance the victim fully supported the publication of this image.”

Detective Constable Danielle Robinson said: “I would like to hear from anyone who has information about this incident or who recognises the man in the e-fit image as he may be able to help with our inquiries.”

A local resident said: “It seems like the force has some gremlins in its system, but anyone could’ve looked at the images and seen how stupid they look.

“How people are expected to identify these suspects when their e-fits look like pictures my three year old son drew with a crayon is beyond me.

“It seems like it’s been going on for a while and Hampshire Constabulary need to sort it out.”

Digging the dirt

Your phone, desk and kitchen are all crawling with bugs. Just how worried should you be?

Pull on your rubber gloves and get out your mobile phone — for this little gadget can harbour 18 times more bacteria than a toilet flush handle, warns new research. Or we could try exchanging mucky e-mails. Because your laptop keyboard is likely to be crawling with the stomach bug campylobacter, says another new report.
That may be enough to send you running to the bathroom for a good scrub — but beware: the seals around your bath and washbasin are a “prime spot” for dangerous bugs including E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, which are linked to food poisoning and breathing problems, says yet another new study.
These three separate reports last week — from the consumer watchdog Which?, the Hygiene Council and the microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington, are merely the tip of a revolting iceberg. They add to research that shows how our lives are beset by contamination with potentially lethal bacteria. The Hygiene Council report says that bathrooms are not the only home threat: 20 per cent of kitchen cloths are a danger, and a third of fridges are contaminated by fungal spores.
A wealth of studies have been done in hygiene-conscious America by Dr Charles Gerber, of the University of Arizona. He has found that there are more faecal bacteria in your kitchen sink than in your toilet after you flush it. And there is apparently 200 times more E. coli on your kitchen cutting board than on a toilet seat. “It’s safer to make a sandwich on a toilet seat,” he says.
It may also be safer to work on the loo than at your desk, says Dr Gerber, a professor of environmental microbiology.
He has shown that there are typically 400 times more bacteria per square centimetre on a desk surface than on a toilet seat. He also notes that television remote controls in hotels are dirtier than the loo. “The dirt is often urine, semen or faeces,” he says.
There is no escape. Dr Gerber has found serious contamination pretty much everywhere: inside domestic washing machines, on supermarket trolley handles — even your Manolos are not safe. Shoes can harbour ten million bacteria per square inch, he says. It may be safer to wear toilets.
In fact, there is no need to panic. Yes, we are surrounded by bacteria. And our skins are covered with bacteria. These two statements have always been true. But we haven’t all dropped dead. Most bacteria are harmless, and those that may be pathogenic are not usually around in sufficient numbers to cause harm. Infectious-disease experts say that the one common household item that should be handled with caution is the dishcloth, as it tends to stay damp as well as dirty and can act as a breeding ground for infectious nasties to grow in sufficient numbers to be dangerous.
Our best bet is simply to follow sensible hygiene routines, such as washing hands after using the bathroom and before handling food. And to prevent infecting others, the official advice (as it was during the swine flu scare) is to cover our noses and mouths when we cough or sneeze, use a tissue whenever possible, and dispose of used tissues quickly and sensibly. It is tediously unspectacular, but effective.
But why do all this research? Without in any way disparaging Dr Gerber’s integrity, there is a wider agenda in such awareness-raising. It is worth pointing out that Dr Gerber has worked closely with commercial companies that, for example, sell cleaning agents and personal sanitisers, market washable shoes and build trolley-sanitising machines. Closer to home, one should also point out that the Hygiene Council is sponsored by Dettol.
But we also love to read these stories. They tickle our primordial paranoia about contagion and death, to the point where mass media reporting has helped to precipitate an epidemic of spermaphobia (even the clinical term for fear of germs sounds yucky).
A report by Mintel, the market researchers, shows how deeply this fear has spread. Last year, about 26 million British adults bought antibacterial handwash. An astonishing nine out of ten of us bought some kind of antibacterial personal-care product (and these figures predate the impact of swine flu fears).

Pakistan Appeal

British public pledges £5m to Pakistan appeal

Donations to emergency Pakistan appeal fund match coalition government aid in only 48 hours as floods leave millions homeless

Food is handed out by aid workers to those in the flooded areas (Bilawal Arbab) The British public has donated £5 million in less than three days towards helping millions of people caught up in Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said today there had been a “fantastic” response to a television appeal on Thursday.

The money raised, in addition to the £5m pledged by the British government, will go towards helping more than 12 million people affected by the worst floods to hit Pakistan in 80 years.

It is estimated that 1,500 people have died as a result of the heavy monsoon rains which arrived in the region last weekend.
Continuing rain claims more lives and the number of afffected people is reported to be over twelve million.

Bloomers - Summer Bouquet

Simple video demonstration about preparing a summer bouquet of flowers



What flowers would you choose to create an impressive bouquet?

Most would agree that having flowers delivered is the easiest way to send a bouquet but of course you could try to pick common wildflowers but they are mostly short stemmed and of little use other than to create a posy

On the subject of flowers check out the carpet of flowers as shown on wide open space

Dirty Coffee

The amounts of nasty chemicals in two cups of coffee exceed the quantity of nasty man-made chemicals than in a years' daily consumption of five fruit and vegetables.

So if the coffee does not harm us why are we irrationally concerned about man-made pesticide residues?

Women's Underwear -Get it off your chest

There are now so many pretty bras available for full-busted women that it surprises me when a someone who is only a 34DD complains that she can't find anything.

It also surprises me when full-busted women complain about price. I knew there was more engineering involved in large cup bras and other women's underwear, but your article helped me understand it better. One thing your article also reveals, although you don't write much about it, is how imprecise the term "full-figured" is.

Those of us who are designing clothes for women with narrow torsos and large cup sizes are using the term "full-busted" or "full-breasted" to distinguish our sub-category of fit. Now that we can find the right bras, it's time to find the right clothing to wear above them - especially in warm weather when tee shirts and summer dresses reveal more of what should be hidden beneath. I write about the challenge that this can be on my blog, BUSTED - In search of the Biggest Bras

Dirty Water - I'll Drink to That

If you're so upset with dirty water then why not buy bottled water or be done with it? Or, better yet, install your own sewage treatment plant in your back yard.

If something is not right, make it right for yourself and don't waste valuable energy trying to make the world conform to your standards. That's being co-dependant. You couldn't possibly have control over what the government does with it's water supply or the municipalities for that matter. Accept it and follow the principles of the Serenity Prayer from AA. You can't change it so accept it and move on. You can buy all the wonderful bottled water you like, install a great filter from your home, or better yet, don't drink water at all and drink only the finest vodka, gin or bourbon every day. That will do two things, give you a pure product to drink and sterilize everything that comes in contact with your body. Alcohol, especially grain alcohol of especially high per centages will kill just about any bug or pathogen out there.

I remember one year when everyone in the family was getting the flu, I had a few whiskeys and kept the pesky flu at bay for a long, long time.

Water isn't the only thing to drink. In fact sometimes it's the worse thing for you. When Humphrey Bogart filmed the Africa Queen, he was one of the few cast members who did not get sick because he didn't drink the water, but drank the booze instead!

Where are gone strong willpower and personal pride?

Ireland Minus R plus C Equals Iceland

Breaking away from the dreary but important task of finding any useful information about Ireland I mistyped Ireland and instead saw suggestions about Iceland..

Once again the Lolcano in Iceland has chucked its muck into the atmosphere and flights to and from Ireland have been disrupted.  Financial pages on the Times commented that the ash deposit accounts for another crippling impact on Ireland's airline industy's financial investments and calls for another research plance to check the air quality have benn made.

The research plane hasn't come back yet - it's got lost in a sinister cloud of deadly gas and ash.......

Prior to the first closure of airspace there had been an aviation industry global wide acceptance of zero tolerance of volcanic ash by the engine manufacturers.

Then there was talk of a 'minimum level' of volcanic ash tolerance. But what is that minumum?

Unless I have missed something in the media already, there has been little said by the engine manufacturers in public as to level of ash can be tolerated. Or is this an unknown factor?

Passengers due to fly today and now cancelled are inconvenienced but on balance are happy the authorities are putting safety first.

Hummer - Is it a Car or a Van

Recently while searching for van hire we at Derr eThings were appaled to see the appearance of Hummers here in the UK.  It would appear that some petrolheaded entrepeneur has had the bright idea of offering these monster-osities to geezers - focussing initially of the van hire london market.

Here's the thoughts of one of our freinds from across the pond:

Hummer is incredibly trashy-looking and ridiculously ugly car. Forget about the whole global warming, impact of climate change thing, that hulky steel box is UGLY and beyond tasteless. No, people make fun of it not because it gets bad mileage, people make fun of it because it makes you look like a uneducated rednecky hick that can't spell A to Z.

I still possess several windshield stickers which I enjoy affixing to the drivers-side window of extra-obnoxious vehicles that park along side me in parking lots. Of course, they say:
S Stupid
U Useless
V Van

No Buts its got to be butter

Margarine has fats in it that aren't found in nature. Refined polyunsaturated veg oil is an industrial novelty (whose introduction coincides with the rise of heart disease, and is implicated in most mental conditions).

Nutritionist have been peddling ideas based on dubious research - statistics produces pseudo-science - that are 180 degrees in contradiction to our hunter gather evolutionary heritage of 3 million years. There were no plump, sweet fruits 30,000 years ago: anthropologists even think there is no original, unmanipulated fruit left on the planet. Think crab apples and damsons for something closer to the truth (small and sour).

Just consider that most veg is inedible uncooked and much of it mildly toxic.

And since the unproven saturated-fat-heart disease theory has now been effectively shown to be only true of marge it's time to pick up a big piece of meat on the bone and eat real food again.

Here's raising my glass to butter! (Avoid 'Willow', it's mostly marge).

A Dozen Cities

The Sunday Times produced their top hot dozen cities -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/holiday_type/breaks/article7056736.ece.
Sit back and enjoy the comments made by Times readers:

My personal fave is, like me, short and sweet:

Bath? BATH!!- is someone having a laugh?

Bath

A nonsense that you feature traffic-clogged Bath and not sublime, atmospheric and wonderful Venice.

Bath???? Are you hallucinating?

Havana

Bath and Havana? I think not.

London

London is always the winner - sunny Turnpike Lane and Wood Green, ahh the memories. Dog do, kfc wrappers and barf up to your ankles, grumpy rude folk everywhere, a fiver a pint, 60 quid for the footie. Gives me a headache every time.

As for London, the pictures I've seen of ladies on a night out doesn't make for very "hot" even if they are wearing stilletos and short dresses!

London is glamourous at a price. It is overpriced and unwelcoming unless you have pots of money and no expectations. It is burdened with traffic, litter and pollution. Yes there are attractions but as a whole, the city is not a winner in this category. With airports situated far away from the City you can spend as much time getting into the centre as you did on your flights to London.

New York

Berlin

Berlin? I was there last week for the first time and found it as much fun as a cold bath.

Paris

Paris? You have to be kidding. Paris is a late middle-aged woman with only self-denial hiding the saggy flesh and wrinkles. Romantic? Technically being possible, but only with the light out and after considerable intake of alcohol - dont delay search for your flights to Paris today.

Stockholm

Stockholm? STOCKHOLM? Over, say, Moscow, Shanghai, Tokyo, Rio, Sydney? Who is paying these writers?

Even Helsinki is better than Stockholm, not to mention Copenhagen.

Other cities on the list:

Istanbul
St Petersburg
Rome
Seville
Tangier

Replace Dirty Electricity with Clean Renewable Energy

Shine On - PV Panels For Clean Energy

Great news for those thinking about installing wind turbines or the lasets PV panels - photovoltaic panels that generate clean electricity from the sun - attractive to investors in the South West where there is expected to be a surge in interest for PV panels in Devon to cash in on the opportunity to earn from using the clean electricity you generate from you own home PV panels or wind turbine. The feed-in-tariif Devon is set to be embraced by homeowners and communitites alike - keen to be green and benefit from the financial incentive of the governments scheme - the campaign to promote renewable energy in Devon looks set to be one of the most successful in the UK - the future looks bright in the South.

Northerns Remain Dirty

There is a sense of dismay from our friends in the North who suspect that they will continue to pay throught he nose for dirty energy generated from coal and oil power stations. Objections have been voiced by the good folk of Manchester who acknowledge that its grim up North - grey skies and rain - not the ideal conditions for generating solar electricity with even the latest efficient PV panels.

Offsetting Flights

It is sad and ironic that the same people calling foul were those that protested strongly when the Airport announced it was looking to attract more flights to Manchester, claiming pollution was already beyond acceptable levels now that dirty smokers were out on the street. They feel agrieved that they are denied the opportunity to "offset" the dirty fumes of these additional flights to the UK by installing technology in their homes to produce renewable, clean electricity.

The next few months will be critical - if the uptake of home generation of clean electric is good we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we ar doing our bit to lessen the effects of climate change as we continue to take flights around the world.

Video Issues Broadcast Yourself

This all sounds very ominous - YouTube Blog: Broadcast Yourself

Bah where would that leave classics like this clip of lingerie models on a roller coaster?

Man? - Clean Up Your Act - Dove for men

Are you anwashed man?

Heres a New Soap For You

Men - Get over it and be comfortable with who you are.

Don't be shy to try beauty products for men. Dove for men give you a chance to clean up your act and no longer be seen as a dirty old man. Be a clean chap.

Dirty Hotel - Worldwide Search for the Dirtiest Hotel

Is this the World's Dirtiest Hotel?

Incredible to learn that a UK hotel has been awarded "dirtiest hotel" by online travel community Tripadvisor. Where is the dirty hotel? The seedy districts of Bangkok, Thailand, the slums of Mumbai? NO - leisure capital of England Blackpool - the Grosvenor Hotel in Blackpool, Lancashire is a dirty hotel!

You would have thought that the well travelled wanderlust types that contibute to travel blogs and travel reviews would have experienced far worse in far corners of the world.

Remember the scene in the film The Beach with Leonardo Crapper when he first arrived in in Thailand and stayed at a backpackers hostel Bangkok - dirty dirty - before going on to discover the beach paradise (now ruined by over tourism)

Sad that the success of the film encourage many airlines to increase their flights to Thailand and gap year students suddenly incorporated flights to Bangkok on their round the world travels and these rough guide freespirits felt cheated if their hotels weren't dirty filthy causing diarrhea and sickness - two things that brings travellers together.

Oh Quit Editors note the Tripadviser award was for EUROPE's dirty hotel category so the dirty hotels of Bangkok can still be awarded this accolade.

Dirty Jokes for Dirty Van Man

Following the series of Dirty themed jokes - these jokes went down well about dirty van hire
some months ago so we thought - hey what some about dirty lingerie jokes?

Test dirt, DO NOT WASH

but when I searched for them there were no jokes about dirty sexy lingerie but I did find this amusing.



got to click the image

Fat Girl Needs Stuffing | Dirty Dieting

Dirty eating - a fat girl is in need of stuffing to compliment her dirty diet.

Haiti Earthquake Beware of Dirty Scammers

Haiti Earthquake Scam

Dirty Dirty Dirty

How anyone has the gaul to exploite the huge catastrophe that Haiti suffers folllowing the earthquake is beyond us.

It has been reported that bogus websites have been set up to con people into donating to Haiti earthquake appeals.

Scams have evolved since the days of Katrina so that Black Hat search engine manipulation is used to promote dodgy sites, Twitter tag-poisoning and even paid search engine placement ads may be brought into play to increase traffic flowing towards fraudulent domains.

Calls to take the sites that are fraudualantly using the Haiti earthquake to con donations from the public into amking down if they are clearly not associated with recognisable charities have been ignored although spokesman from isc commented that they are "keeping an eye on them" and hope to be able to protect.

Charity events

There has been specualtion that bogus charity events will be organised to make the sites and the fake charities appear more credible.

If you want to avoid dirty scams stick with taking par in charity events and donating to high profile organisation to make your donations for Haiti Earthquake.

Dirty Gesture to Swiss Vote Against Minarets

Banning minarets. If that isn't one of the most odd government actions I've ever heard of, it's close.

In November, Switzerland voted to ban the construction of new minarets, the towerlike structures that adorn mosques. A week or so later, in an apparent act of defiance, a new minaret unexpectedly sprang up.

The minaret is attached to the warehouse of a shoe store called Pomp It Up, which is part of a Swiss chain. It was erected by the chain's owner, Guillaume Morand, who fashioned it out of plastic and wood and attached it to a chimney. The new minaret, nearly 20 feet high and illuminated at night, is clearly visible from the main highway connecting Lausanne and Geneva.

Just a way to attract new clientale to sell more shoes. Good marketing gimmick, but muslims in Switzerland won't see it that way. They are not equipped to analyse the ways of capitalists.

Send Mr. Morond to Saudi or flight to Dubai to build a plastic steeple on his chimney..... and see what's going to happen to him.

Yes, he'd be in a lot of trouble. But then Saudi Arabia is not a secular democracy where human rights are supposed to be protected. We expect bigotry and disrespect for rights from a authoritarian monarchy, but a modern Western nation is supposed to be a different story.

I think there needs to be a poster showing a minaret that people can put up on their walls. Switzerland ought to be plastered with them. Switzerland should have minaret calendars and little chocolate minarets and key chains with minarets on them. Swiss people ought to wear minaret lapel pins and ties and handkerchiefs with images of minarets on them.