Da Vinci Drawings Found
December 24, 2008
The Louvre Museum has found drawings on the back of a Leonardo da Vinci painting previously undiscovered. The drawings are believed to be done by da Vinci himself, though how they have gone undiscovered for so long is not known.
The drawings feature part of a skull, baby Jesus with a lamb and a horse head and were on the back of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. The curator made the discovery on the back of the wooden painting.
The Louvre said:
“This is an exceptional discovery because drawings on the back of paintings are very rare and no example by Leonardo was previously known. The style of the drawings recalls the style of Leonardo, but research is ongoing to clarify their authorship.”
NPower Hit By Ofgem
December 22, 2008
In the news today, Ofgem have announced that they will fine NPower owned by German energy giants RWE £1.8 million. 
According to Ofgem, NPower have not tried to prevent the mis-selling of its energy supply contracts to customers.
NPower have sacked six sales staff following their own investigation in May after allegations people had been misled. The ruling states that consumers should be fully aware that they are entering a contract.
Following the mis-sells, management failed to follow up the claims of poor door to door sales staff.
Sarah Harrison of Ofgem has said:
“This decision sends a clear message to energy suppliers that failing customers and falling short of licence standards will lead to Ofgem action”.
Ofgem have said that 2009 will bring tougher regulations for door to door sales staff to try and prevent mis-selling. Suggestions that door to door sales staff should provide written quotations comparing their offer with that of their existing supplier have been mentioned.
A further 17 staff from NPower have been sacked following the investigation that began in April. Hopefully energy suppliers will begin to realise that they are not invincible. Though, it is questionable how much effect £1.8 million will have on NPower.
Hold Up At Stansted
December 8, 2008
More than 50 protestors brought Stansted Airport to standstill this morning. According to police reports protests started at 3:15am when security was initially breeched. There have been 39 arrests after it was deemed “a criminal act” which will be dealt with in the courts. The protests were in disapproval of the plans to build another runway at the airport.
This morning flights were due to leave at 6:10am however the incident is only now being resolved. Ryanair who had to cancel 52 flights said that this was unacceptable and are demanding an investigation into the affair.
It is rather worrying however that they managed to penetrate the air field with the threat of terrorism as it currently is. The amount of people who would relish the fact that it is possible to break into a UK airfield is quite scary. I think this situation needs rectifying very quickly before something terrible happens!
Co-Pilot Goes Loco Mid Flight!
November 30, 2008
In the news this week is the airline co-pilot who went loco mid flight… needing to be wrestled out of the cock pit before a stewardess helped with the emergency landing. 
The flight from Toronto to London with Air Canada found the pilot being restrained and sedated. According to a safety report the pilot began talking in a “rambling and disjointed” way before refusing to observe safety procedures.
The pilot then said that his colleague was so “belligerent and uncooperative” that he was unable to fulfil his job. Once this decision was made, the pilot called a number of air stewards to remove the co-pilot, and then two on board doctors sedated him.
The question was then raised by the pilot whether any passengers were qualified pilots; however no one had the qualification. It then came to light that a steward had an expired commercial pilots licence and so was the best option to aid with the emergency landing.
Pilot, plus Air Steward managed to land the plane at Shannon Airport in West Ireland. There were over 150 people on the dramatic Boeing 767 during the flight that day.
Little information was officially given relating to the event and no names of staff were given. It was said that the loco co-pilot was a veteran with licence, who had recently passed a medical examination and had over 6,500 hours flying experience under his belt.
This is terrifying!!!!
Violence Continues In India
November 28, 2008
A Business man from Briton had to blockade himself into his Mumbai hotel room when it was attacked.
The Oberoi Hotel was taken by militants on Wednesday while Mark Abell was staying there. There was no food and very little water and Mark said that he was;
“Surrounded by explosions, gunshots and people screaming”
The attacks saw one British national killed and at least 7 injurred following the attacks. It wasn’t until Friday that the situation was taken back into control by authorities.
After freeing many guests and staff from the hotel, police found 24 bodies. Still now rescue attempts are still going on at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, another luxury hotel. There have been over 130 people found dead following the attacks and many more injured. The involvement of Britons is currently being investigated.
This massive out brake of violence is harrowing and the potential involvement of Britons is worrying. Not only this, but India is accusing Pakistan of involvement, which could cause international conflict.
Major UK Names Enter Administration
November 26, 2008
High Street old timer Woolworths with 815 stores UK wide has today gone into administration.
This will put thousands of people out of work with the board of directors meeting at 6pm to make a decision regarding Woolworth’s future.
Not only this, but MFI are also set to go into administration. Problems cited have been less demand, cash flow problems and credit terms being withdrawn. Though not all of the 110 stores are closing, only 24 will remain open.
Back to Woolworths, all 815 stores are in danger with 25,000 potential redundancies. Woolworths have continued to struggle with their £385 million debt, which has been made worse recently as they have had to pay cash to suppliers as they could no longer get trade insurance.
Though there have been great efforts to find buyers for their business, today they have had to accept their fate in administration. I think this goes to show that as much as the Labour Party would like us to believe that the recession will be over in 6 to 12 months, this is unlikely to be the case.
We should look to the long term and prepare for the worst. The recent budget plans seem to be a gamble with Britain’s future, this is the time to be careful and prepare for the next couple of years of doomy finances, not risk everything.
Freaky Friday In Chicago
November 9, 2008
In the news, yesterday a woman has been found living with 2 skeletons and a body in a badly decomposed state.
The elderly woman living in Chicago was found with remains of her siblings and at least one died over 20 years ago.
The bodies we found in various rooms of the house, under sheets, but no foul play is suspected by police.
It is said that the woman is over 90 years old. Her siblings were last seen alive in the 1980’s, 2003 and the last in May earlier in the year.
While the investigation takes place the woman has been moved into care. The autopsies were do to be carried out on Saturday.
Extremists Barred From UK
October 29, 2008
At last tougher measures are being put in place to prevent extremism in the UK. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that those who are preaching anti-Britishness will not be allowed to enter the UK.
Since 2005, there have been 230 people barred from the UK, but up until now their identities have remained a mystery. Now, in some cases their names will be made public. Of the previously excluded people there have been; holocaust deniers, neo-Nazis and animal rights activists, with around 80 being religious extremists.
It is expected that Mrs Smith will announce her full plan later today and will look to call coming to the UK a ‘privilege’ which shouldn’t be abused.
Conservative Home Affairs Committee member Patrick Mercer worries that the measures will target the wrong people and has said:
“It’s the people who are working undercover, who aren’t known about, who are working inside the community and influencing people there, they are the really dangerous people.”
Chris Huhne, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman said that the plans didn’t go far enough to dealing with those already in the UK and preaching on the web. He said:
“The main problem with these sorts of eye-catching gimmicks is they don’t make us any safer at all. What we’re looking for is delivery.”
I think that this is a step in the right direction. Being British is a very lucky thing indeed. The UK is open to immigrants more than most countries and we are happy for people to join our culture. It is a shame that the small minority that insight hate give a bad reputation for the many that contribute and engage in our society. If there were better measures in the UK to deal with those who have no intention of becoming British and do not want to integrate into our communities, then it is likely there would be less bigots hassling those who do.
Police Help Emergency Baby Delivery
October 10, 2008
In the news today a policemen was apparently about to tell a man off for his driving when he realised he had to help deliver the man’s baby.
The Russian couple were parked in their grey BMW in South West London, when PC Wells and PC Cullen went to speak to them about their road skills. The father to be, Mr Nadel had flagged down the police car in attempt to get directions to the hospital.
PC Wells said:
“He (Mr Nadel) was behind us and overtook then pulled in, I was about to have words with him about the way he was driving then he said his wife was having a baby. I think he was hoping for a blue light escort but instead we decided to call an ambulance.”
The expecting mother Natalia quickly moved into the advanced stages of labor and the police had to quickly think on their feet to help.
PC Wells quickly saw that the baby was turning blue and managed to remove the umbilical cord which had become wrapped around the baby’s neck.
PC Wells said: Read the rest of this entry »
Yet Another Information Blunder
September 30, 2008
Random Storm security expert has bought access to a council’s internal network off Ebay for 99p. It was only when he switched on the device that he found it automatically connected to the Kirklees Council internal network in West Yorkshire.
The 99p investment bought by Mr. Mason was a VPN server that gives remote access to a network. Kirklees Council have said that this is ‘concerning’ but that their data had not been compromised. Under the circumstances they have been very lucky as this device in the wrong hands could have caused a lot of damage and much private data could have been taken.
There are clear guidelines on how to reset and dispose of council hardware though clearly this time the device went unnoticed. If it fell into the hands of hackers the whole Council system in that area could have been brought down.
Where knowledge is power and information is everything, the powers that be should really get a grip on the security situation as they do in fact hold lots of power. Most council’s are incompetent, time wasters and jobsworths at the best of times, but unfortunately they do have a lot of power and hold lots of information about us. They really need to get a grip of the situation!