Dropsafe

A Somerset chef who was bitten twice by a highly-venemous Brazilian spider was saved thanks to a snap he took of the beast on his mobile phone, the Times reports. Matthew Stevens, 23, disturbed the Brazilian Wandering Spider (Phoneutria fera) which had stowed away in a crate of bananas and found its way to the…

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There exists a town in Germany named Poing – and I know someone who lives there.

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Via Found comes [news.bbc.co.uk] Toads in an area of northern Germany are being killed off by a mysterious disease – they are exploding. Thousands of the amphibians have died in recent days in a pond in Hamburg’s Altona district, with their bodies swelling to bursting point. The toads’ entrails are propelled for up to a…

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It only took them 10 minutes: [13:38] — alecm has changed the topic to: n1w s5t l2e n4d f1r c5l, p4e a3y w4n [13:40] <davew> Erm [13:41] <Avalon> *scratches head* [13:41] <davew> Working on the basis that this follows the form of “i18n” etc [13:42] <diamond> 1-5, 5 vowels? Nope, that doesn’t work [13:42] <davew>…

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The school meals revolution set in motion by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has already run into difficulties as long-term contracts with private companies prevent schools getting rid of junk food. The Guardian has learned that new schools locked into 25-year contracts through private finance initiatives are finding that they cannot rid their menus of junk…

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Regular readers will have worked-out by now that I am a sucker for art and fun in the hands of the people, and this is a new one on me. The basic technique of GPS Drawing is to use a mapping, track-recording GPS to plot out your movement, in a given place, over a given…

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So I’ve been bricking it for the past few days, having volunteered to do a Sun-internal biker-themed collection on behalf of [www.naomihouse.org.uk] – my favourite human charity of the moment. I needn’t have worried about making a good showing. The collection is still ongoing, and there is the motorcycle ride-out still to do with however…

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[www.wandg.com] – found linked from the [www.aardman.com] website.

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Check this out – after KTM’s goof with the Long Way Round folks, BMW are really putting the knife in to the KTM 950 Adventure series with this thing: [www.motoring.co.za] It looks great. I neither want nor merit one, but it looks great.

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[news.bbc.co.uk] See also the BBC’s “Guide to choosing a new pope” [news.bbc.co.uk] Remember: A pope is for life, not just for Christians.

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Smoke signals no pope agreement. “We lack the Pope. The Pope smoke’s black.” Plus I legitimately get to use an apostrophe for comic effect.

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Can someone who is significantly older than me please remind me: I seem to remember Karol Wojtyla being a complete surprise to the media when he was made[1] pope; admittedy his becoming Pope JP2 was very shortly after the death of JP1 who in turn shocked shocked the media (and possibly himself) by dying only…

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