Russian Shepherd Sues Roskosmos

Yep a simple shepherd is sueing the Russian space agency Roskosmos, and the reason why? A chunk of metal nearly 10 feet in length (just over 2,5 metres) from a Russian rocket nearly hit his outdoor toilet next to his home.

Boris Urmatov, the Russian shepherd concerned lives in a tiny village called Kyrlyk and is partially sighted which meant that when he was rudely awoken by something that sounded like an explosion in the middle of the night he didn't notice the rocket parts strewn across his back yard.

It was not until the early hours when the sun had rose that Boris the Shepherd managed to see the smooth egg like casing of the large rocket part sitting on the ground near his beloved outside toilet.

Boris has filed a claim for one million roubles (twenty one thousand two hundred pound) from Roskosmos as compensation for the damage and suffering caused.

Alexander Vorobyov, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roskosmos "If a court determines that, yes, those are rocket parts, they fell on his land, then for sure he will be compensated. No question about it."

Crucifixion Health Warnings!

It may sound very strange but it is very true, the Phillipine government has issued a health warning on the dangers of Crucifixion!

So what is this all about?

Well at Easter a large number of Catholic worshippers in the Phillipines practise self flagellation and even go as far as to practise crucifixion to show their faith and to rid themselves of any sins.

The Phillipine government have issued warnings saying that those who partake in crucifixion this Easter should get tetanus injections before the day and also make sure that all nails are disinfected as the nails are normally left in alcohol for a whole year.

It must be said that those who are crucified do live through the process but will have scars on their hands and feet showing where the nails are driven through. The nails are hammered through areas where there is no bone as not to severely damage the person being crucified.

One gentleman, a fishermonger in the Phillipines, will be crucified for the last time this year, making it his fifteenth time. The reason he took to crucifixion was due to his mother managing to get better from Tuberculosis 15 years ago.

In another interesting turn for crucifixion Coca Cola...yes Coca Cola has sponsored an event where an improvised Golgothas (the Biblical name given to the hill where Jesus was crucified) has been erected for people to flagellate and crucify themselves.

Prison Crowding - UK

The United Kingdom is reaching a critical stage in its prison service as jails have reached a status of overcrowding. The secretary of state for justice, Jack Straw, has recently urged Judges to start handing out fewer short sentences in preference to community service orders (Where the offender has to complete a specific amount of time working for the community).

Currently the population in the United Kingdom prison service is only 470 below its total capacity, which is a terrible situation as this means the prison service is roughly 99.5% full.

The government have seen this situation and have pledged to make another 2,500 spaces available in the prison service this year, but this situation has been coming along for a long time and was reported on a few years ago. I remember back in 2005 the government were looking at prison boats to easing the crowding in Her Majesty's Prisons.

I do wonder what the governemt has in store to reduce the crowding, will it give early release to offenders who have shown good behaviour or will the government look further in to the issue and try to find an alternative.

I have been thinking about a possible alternative and have a solution that the government could utilise effectively. The UK has many disused platforms in the north sea that gas companies once used to drill in to the earth so they could drill for gas. Could the government convert one of these huge platforms in to a high security prison, one where there is no escape besides via a helicopter arriving?

I think it would be great to use these disused eyesores on our landscape for something important, especially given that without using land on the greenbelt there is not much land left to start building new prisons.