How to succeed in politics without even trying…just stay out of jail

A British expat who speaks only a few words of Spanish has become the “accidental mayor” of a town on the Costa Blanca.

Mark Lewis, 58, has been left in charge in San Fulgencio after the mayor, deputy mayor and four senior councillors were all taken into police custody following corruption allegations.

Mr Lewis was given the title as he is one of only two councillors from the ruling coalition not to be arrested, reports the Daily Telegraph.

via Brit Spanish mayor

Oops!!

A police force put 26 of its cars out of action by filling up with the wrong fuel, it was reported.

Officers working for North Wales Police cost the taxpayer nearly £3,000 in the last 12 months by pumping gallons of petrol into their diesel engines, reported the Welsh Daily Post.

In 2006 the force introduced bright yellow filler cap covers marked with the word “diesel”. But that did not stop officers making the same mistake 26 times.

via Metro.co.uk

Your baggage may be slightly delayed.

A Delta baggage worker got a bit of a fright before Halloween when she opened a jetliner’s cargo door and found a cheetah running loose amid the luggage. Two cheetahs were being flown in the cargo area of a Boeing 757 passenger flight from Portland, Ore., to Atlanta on Thursday when one escaped from its cage, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said Friday.

“They told us a large animal had gotten out of a container in the cargo hold and they were having to send someone to tranquilize it,” said one passenger, Lee Sentell of Montgomery, Ala.

He said luggage was delayed, but baggage handlers promised to send his bags to him in Alabama.

The good news for passengers: The escaped cheetah didn’t damage any of their luggage.

via Cheetahs on plane

Comment on Comments

It’s rare that I don’t post a comment but I got one this morning that I didn’t post for three reasons. Here it is: “ppl got pic youll got their next time try to see if ull could get her face closer.” So why didn’t I post it? Three reasons: firstly it is so “cleverly” written that it is unintelligible and second, the email address that was given on it is not valid and third, the listed web site doesn’t exist.

I’m always interested in your comments but comments like the one above raise too many red flags.

Fall Sunrise, Oct. 2008

October 30_2008 sunrise

Read and post comments

|

Send to a friend

Crime tip: Don’t drive a stolen truck past the cop that owns it.

A police officer directing traffic outside of a concert in suburban Dallas noticed a familiar-looking truck driving by — his own. The startling sight led to the arrest of James Matthew Herring, 22, who is charged with theft and evading arrest, police said.

Officer Jerry Varner said he parked his maroon pickup about 100 yards from where he was directing traffic Saturday night. He said he didn’t notice anyone breaking in but recognized his truck coming toward him.

Varner ordered the driver to pull over. Instead, the man put the truck in reverse and attempted to flee, striking several vehicles, police said.

Police cars eventually surrounded the truck. The driver tried to run but was soon caught, police said.

via Newsday.com

Cold mountains…icy cold, actually.

There’s a mountain range the size of the Alps hidden underneath the ice of Antarctica – and nobody knows how it got there. The Gamburtsev Mountain Range stretches for 1,200km, and is up to 3,400m high – but because the ice is 4km deep, nobody’s ever seen them.

via Metro.co.uk

So how do they know the mountains are there? Can radar penetrate that deeply?

Dropped your phone in a toilet on a high speed train? Buy a new phone.

A passenger on a French train had to be rescued after having his arm sucked down the on-board toilet.

The 26-year-old Frenchman became trapped while trying to fish his mobile phone out of the toilet on a high-speed train, passengers said.

They said he fell foul of the toilet’s the powerful suction system which drains the loos on board, the rail network’s regional office said.

via Metro.co.uk

Muppet caught speeding in Bavaria

Is there an “Animal” endangering the streets of Bavaria? Police traffic cameras recently captured a puppet speeding, but the culprit turned out to be a hot-footed British driver with a sense of humour.

“It was funny when the photo came in for processing and it appeared that no one was at the wheel, but it was an English car, which means the driver’s seat is on the other side, so the camera didn’t catch the actual driver’s face,” the Bayreuth police spokesperson told The Local on Wednesday.

via The Local

Warp 5, Mr. Sulu. Spock Wants to go home.

The fictional home planet of Star Trek’s Mr Spock may really exist.

A powerful telescope found rocky worlds around the star, Epsilon Eridani, which Spock’s planet Vulcan orbits in the TV show.

via Ananova – Spock’s planet may exist

Peasant Olympics — Great idea

Rice-planting, tire-rolling and, er, kite-flying – welcome to China’s Sixth National Peasants’ Games.

Hot on the heels of the Beijing Olympics comes a showcase of the down-to-earth skills of the country’s 900million rural folk. The scale is impressive – 3,500 farmers compete in more than 180 events and the opening ceremony used 16,000 performers.

via Metro.co.uk

Crime Tip: Don’t drive to court in a stolen car

Police have charged a man with stealing a Lexus SUV he drove to court the day a jury was to decide whether to convict him in a separate auto theft case. The man was arraigned Monday on charges of receiving a stolen vehicle and receiving stolen property after police saw him approach the stolen Lexus in front of the courthouse with its keys in hand.

via dallasnews.com

He was convicted in the first case and charged with the second.

Extra raven insurance

Four extra ravens are being drafted into the Tower of London because of the financial crisis — to prevent a 350-year-old curse coming true.

King Charles II decreed there must be at least six ravens otherwise a disaster would strike the nation and the Royal Family.

And up to now, bosses have kept just one spare bird in residence to act as a “super sub”.

But with the UK facing credit crunch meltdown, they ruled an extra four must now be acquired.

via The Sun |News

Sunday Quote

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Herm Albright

via Herm Albright Quotes – The Quotations Page

Lightning didn’t have to strike twice here. Once was enough.

Lightning [in Montevideo, Uruguay] struck only once — but 52 cows are dead at an Uruguayan ranch. The newspaper El Pais reports that the cows had pressed against a wire fence during a storm when the lightning bolt struck in the northern state of San Jose…

The newspaper said Friday that veterinarians at the scene confirmed the cause of the deaths…

via Lightning kills 52 cows

Like chicken soup…it can’t hurt.

Hundreds of people gathered for a Hindu religious rite in a town in eastern India on Friday, seeking divine intervention into the global economic crisis as stocks plummeted worldwide, organisers said. The rite was performed on the same day as the Indian rupee hit a record low of 50.15 per dollar, and the Indian share market dropped 11 percent to three-year lows.

More than three hundred people watched the rite being performed by 131 priests in a temple in the beach city of Puri in Orissa state. The priests poured water into pots from a nearby pond and carried them out in a procession to the temple, shouting praises of Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth.

More at  Hundreds in India pray

You mean that wasn’t a salad?

A Lakewood [Colorado] couple found a small bag of marijuana in a bag of food picked up at the drive-in of a Del Taco Restaurant.

Twenty-six-year-old Dennis Klermund, who police say waited on the husband who stopped at the restaurant Oct. 16, faces possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Steve Davis on Saturday said the couple called police after discovering the bag with their food order.

via 9NEWS.com

Escaping in style. I wonder if the limo had a TV in it…

Economic times may not be that tough for a suspected bank robber in the Dallas area. Irving police said the on-the-lam suspect used a limousine as his getaway vehicle.

via Daily Inter Lake Template

And if you believe this I have a bridge I’d like to sell you…

A potted plant at a cafe near Tokyo, Japan is entertaining customers by writing a regular blog about its feelings.

It is the work of a university engineer who has been studying how to communicate with plants. He devised a sensor which he attached to the plant named “Midori-san” that measures bio-electric signals. These are converted into data by a computer next the plant and then translated into Japanese in the form of a blog.

The plant’s latest entry reads: “It was cloudy today. It was a cold day.”

via BBC NEWS

When using a GPS, look out the windshield occasionally

A Polish white van man who was too sure of his sat-nav ended up neck-deep in a lake after ignoring road signs warning of a dead-end ahead, Polish police said today. The road hasn’t been used for a year after it was flooded out when an artificial lake was created.

It was dark and the un-named driver had been drinking, but he still managed to miss three signs warning him there was a lake ahead.

Mail Online