Romanian Electrician Stakes Claim for State Position

The title may not seem like much of a story but there is an interesting twist to this little piece of Romanian news.

Cornel Cernoschi, a Romanian electrician who found himself out of work decided to take a history course to prove his intelligence. After studying long and hard our Romanian electrician stumbled across some interesting ancestry about his family.

Cornel searched long and hard to find that he is related to a fifteenth century ruler of the Romanian province of Moldavia, this ancestors name, believe it or not, is Stephan the Great.

Since finding this information out our Romanian electrician has decided to stake a claim with the government to lands stolen from his ancestors many years ago. Cornel has even gone as far as taking the government to court demanding that he gets titles, land, a house, recognition as the heir to the region and other privileges that anyone of this position would have.

Cornel even stood in court and announced "I want to be granted a high state position to represent Moldova, as well as some kind of symbol of my status and worth - a manor house should do."

The court case is still ongoing and it will be interesting to see if our Romanian electrician ends up with what he feels he is entitled to...I feel it may be time to start researching my family ancestry!

Drunk Russian Knifed In Back

After a huge night on the alcohol in Vologda, a county in Russia, a fifty three year old Russian man stumbled home without a care in the world until he saw his wife the next morning. At this point you might imagine an arguement ensuing about his alcoholism but this was far from the truth as his wife found a knife handle sticking out of his back.

Yuri Lylin, the Russian with the knife in his back, said he had not realised the knife was there and did not feel any pain throughout the evening although he did shed light on how it probably happened!

After drinking copious amounts of Vodka Yuri and his friends made their own version of Russian roullette up, this involved one of the drinking crew to be blindfolded and given a ten inch knife which they started making stabbing motions with while all the other friends danced around them.

Yuri left the party with fond drunken memories of the silly games his friends and he had played, got home and went to sleep. It was only a peircing scream from his wife that woke him up in the morning that made him realise that the ten inch blade was sticking out of his back.

Yuri's wife rang an ambulance and he went to hospital where the knife was successfully removed, Yuri was then sent home. After all thats happened Yuri has no anger towards his friends and says its all a drunken accident, although I imagine his wife will have a few words to say when he goes out with this set of friends again!

Man Trades His Wife For a Goat!

Stoil Panayotov, a Bulgarian farmer, stunned a large crowd at a cattle market in Bulgarias second largest city Plovdiv by exchanging his third wife Elena for an eight year old goat!

Yes, yes, the Bulgarian farmer was not happy that his third wife could not supply him with an heir to his farming estate and decided to take emergency action. Mr. Panayotov took his wife to the cattle market with one thing on his mind, this was to trade her in for a younger model...albeit of the four legged variety.

The deal all started when one of Mr. Panayotov's friends said he didnt have any luck with women and had taken a fancy to the Bulgarians wife. Mr. Panayotov spoke to his wife who gave her approval to be swapped for the eight year old goat.

To rubs salt in to Mr. Panayotov's now ex-wife Elena's wounds, the goat that she was swapped for has now given the Bulgarian farmer three kids....sp he now has three heirs...although they are obviously not his own children!

Fireman Turns Arsonist For Overtime!

Powel Leszek, a young Polish man at the tender age of eighteen faces up to ten years in jail just because he wanted to work overtime so he could buy his girlfriend a nice present!

Powel was earning the equivalent of two pounds (four dollars) an hour as a voluntary fireman in his home town. With his girlfriends birthday coming up the young Powel decided to put in as much overtime as possible in his job as a voluntary fireman, the only problem with this decision is that if there are no fires, there is no overtime.

To have work for his overtime to be agreed Powel went on an arson spree where he set fire to three seperate barns over the space of a week, at first everything was going well for the young Powel until a local resident saw him setting fire to another barn.

From just trying to earn a little extra to buy his girlfriend a nice birthday present Powel Leszek has been charged with endangering public safety and arson which carries a possible prison sentence of up to ten years!

The Wheelchair Getaway

The place - California
The bank - Wachovia Bank, Stanford Shopping Centre in Palo Alto
The perp - An old man aged sixty five to seventy years old in a wheelchair!

An old aged pensioner of around sixty five to seventy years of age with white hair and a beard innocently wheeled in to the Wachovia Bank at the Stanford Shopping Centre before pulling out a gun and getting the cashier to fist handfuls of cash in to a bag. Once the perp had got his cash he made a speedy getaway in his electric wheelchair.

Given he is in an electric wheelchair you would imagine that the police would be able to catch this aging armed robber but you would be wrong. The old robber managed to evade capture from the police and made his getaway without any problems.

The police are currently searching for this old man and have released a sketch, the problem is that they could not capture a good image of him on CCTV because of the hood of his sweatshirt that was covering his face.

It seems that no matter how old a person gets they can decide the criminal path is the one for them, who would ever have thought that a wheelchair bound pensioner could rob a bank and make a speedy getaway evading the police!

An Armed Robber Is Given A Cuppa

A man in Czechoslovakia donned a Spiderman mask and walked in to a supermarket brandishing a gun to rob the cashier of the money in her till but got more than he bargained for from the cashier, fifty nine year old Marketa Vachova.

Even though the would be robber was hidden behind a Spiderman mask and brandishing a gun at her she thought he was a nice young man and started to ask him what had caused him to want to rob the shop. As the shop was quiet and they were the only people present they got talking and Marketa, the cashier even invited him back for a cup of tea and a slice of cake!

The man in question actually apologised for what he was doing in the end, agreed to come back for the cake and cup of tea before walking out of the supermarket without the cash.

Unfortunately for our masked man the Czechoslovakian police are currently looking for him and say that he could potentially end up with a ten year prison sentence.

My hat goes off to Marketa Vachova who really did face something most people would not be able to handle and manage to diffuse the whole situation through the power of conversation.

Chinese Wounded Angel - Panic

A Chinese artist used his imagination and created an artistic piece called "Wounded Angels". What the artist didn't know was that his piece of art would cause widespread panic in the city of Shanghai that resulted in an elderly lady being rushed to hospital due to a heart attack brought on by the shock of the piece.

So what had everyone in a panic?

The Chinese artist in question had hung four mannequins with wings on their backs outside of skyscrapers. The problem was that early morning commuters mistook them for real people and thought they were ready to jump to their deaths.

The police received many calls about these "People" and rushed to the scene with firefighters to find they were just mannequins.

It seems that the artist in question did manage to engage an audience and really get people talking but it will be interesting to find out what will happen now after the widespread panic he caused.

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.

The European Union soft porn film

Many of the wonderful people in the European Union will be surprised to find that the leaders of the European Union have took it upon themselves to create a soft porn film.....yes you heard right, a soft porn film.

The forty four second video showing eighteen couples going at it like rabbits (including gay couples) only breaks between each couple to show shelves rattling and eggs shaking.

The funniest thing about the film is the end when you see the couples climax and the words "Lets come together" show on the screen.

The film is actually called Film lovers will love and is an advertisment to show that EU funds go towards creating and distributing films in the European Union.

I couldnt resist showing you the film :P

Raul Castro - Cuban President

So Fidel Castro stands down as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years at the helm of the communist machine that has been the bain of many American Presidents time in office and Cuba's national assembly unanimously vote Fidel Castro's brother Raul Castro as the President.

At seventy six years of age Raul Castro may control the reins of Cuba for a good many years as long as he stays healthy, what will be interesting is if he will change any of the ways Cuba operates from how Cuba was run by his older brother Fidel.

Although Raul becoming the President is not surprising there must be many heads of state across the world who have held their head low in dismay as they were probably hoping for someone who is a lot more understanding of the democratic world.

One of the big surprises that did come out of the appointment of Raul Castro as President is the fact that he chose Machado Ventura as vice President. Machado Ventura is a seventy eight year old Communist hard liner and most people expected Raul Castro to choose a communist leader from the younger generation to become his vice President.

The end of Fidel Castro's reign is a huge occassion in todays world, one that many will be following to see what happens to Cuba, my opinion is that Rauls appointment will mean that Fidel will still have a huge input in to how things are run. Time will show how Cuba will progress through this transition and if it will have a positive affect.

Fat Nations

In the last fifty years the western nations of this world have grown fat, by this I mean the people who live in these rich countries. The western nations in my view are fat nations.

Look at the Americans and British and you will see that the average waist size of both man and woman has grown beyond reasonable measure. This growth has been the product of too many advances in technology.

Long ago you could see many a teenager playing football on the local park after their day at school, now the parks are a desolate place where no one treads and its all because of the personal computer.

Long ago you could see housewives hand washing clothes and crockery but now they put them in machines that do it for them.

Long ago you could see men walking to the shops for their daily newspaper but now it is all done by car.

Time has moved forward and so has the luxuries we enjoy in life, but these luxuries have made the average person very lazy, so lazy in fact that they cannot even make their own dinner and put ready meals in the microwave or even buy takeaways two or three times a week.

I believe the problem in todays society is that we are so used to getting what we want without lifting a finger, so much so that we dont have "time" to mow the lawn or spend thirty minutes kicking a ball around with our children when the truth is we are lazy. What makes matters worse is that we are the role models of our youth and if we show them how easy it can be to kick back and let technology do the work for us then they will become even bigger and lazier than we are now.

Man made to marry goat!

I came across a story from 2006 that had me laughing so much that I had to write a post about this historical peice of news.

In February 2006 a man from Sudan was caught having sexual relations with a goat by its owner. The owner woke up in the middle of the night and rushed outside to find another Sudanese man called Mr. Tombe mounted on his goat.

When the goat owner asked Mr. Tombe what he was doing Mr. Tombe fell off the back of the goat he was "riding". The goat owner then caught Mr. Tombe and tied him up.

Instead of ringing the police the goat owner decided to speak to the elders from where he lives, the elders said that Mr. Tombe had used the goat as his wife so as such he needs to pay the goat owner a dowry ($50) and take the goat as his wife....which is just what Mr. Tombe's did.

It also said in the article that nearly two weeks on man and goat were still together as far as the goat owner knew.

My World Vision

The world in which we live in has changed dramatically over the past one hundred years and I believe due to these vast changes the lives we live have changed dramatically to, but not always in a positive way.

I have a vision of the world, one that I know would never happen but one that I feel would make everyone a better person and the cultures we live in a more enjoyable place to live. As my vision is one that is quite large it may be difficult to translate in to words but here goes......

Individuals

As individuals we have forgotten what our life is all about, we are too preoccupied with work that we forget about the people around us and even forget about the joys of live we want ourselves.

I believe its time everyone took a step back and thought about their wants and needs and the wants and needs of those around them. It is also time to think of those less fortunate in our society and spend some time and/or money to help those less fortunate have a better standard of living.

Family Values

Long ago family values were important, all families would sit together for evening meals and the most important meal of the week, the Sunday roast. Today sees family values gone with families not working together as units anymore and being full of individuals who share a common home and come and go as they please without as much as a hello or goodbye.

I believe it is time for parents to take the "bull by the horns" so to speak in reinstate the family values that brings family members together. This could be something simple like a family meal every Sunday or a night out together every Wednesday to an activity that involves everyone to work together.

It is also time that people forget about religion or race when talking to someone else and just concentrate on the personality of the person they are talking to. Does it matter if someone is Sikh, Mulsim, Christian? No, what matters is their personality and if they are a good person. It doesn't matter what race or religion you are there are good and bad people in every race and religion.

Community

Once upon a time the comunity we live in was seen as a very important and integral part of everyday life. Everyone knew their neighbours, they would go round to each others house to borrow sugar or milk and would enjoy a cup of coffee and a good chat, these were also the days when people left their front doors unlocked and open without fear of something bad happening to them.

Today we see the community spirit gone, everyone is to preoccupied in their own lives to even bother to get to know their neighbours let alone enjoy a cup of coffee and a good conversation. What this is doing is alienating everyone from the society they live in. Is it not time that everyone embraced the people that live around them and bring back community spirit so everyone can enjoy each others company and work together to improve the areas they live in?

Business

Is it not time that the large businesses of the world that brain wash us daily with advertising started thinking about ploughing some of their millions of profit back in to the countries and communities that they are taking money from.

I am not asking that these companies give all their money away but they could look at the poorer parts of different countries and work with local governments to build special services for the people who live there to bring them together and promote happiness, health and education.

Local Council

I am sure everyone would love to see improvments to the city or town they live in, I would be very much surprised if someone said they were not interested at all. What I have noticed is that as time has gone by the councils and local governments of cities and towns across the globe have become more insular. They do not involve the people with whom they serve for decisions abiout community projects enough any more, yet this still increase taxes year on year.

I think its time for local government to come back down to street level and ask the people of the community they serve what they really want and need in the community, these may be simple things like career/educational support and play areas for the young to keep them off the streets and promote education instead of statues placed at every corner.

Governments of the World

It is time that the governments of the world stood united and worked together to bring peace and prosperity to the people they serve. Alot of the issues in todays society are bred from the actions of the governments around them.

Look at the recent issues between the United States and Iran, I am sure the situation was nothing like what it has ben portrayed. What these clashes do is bring resentment from the nationals of these countries against one another. Iranians will start disliking the American people more and the American people will start disliking the Iranian people more which will in turn promote terrorism against different countries and cultures.

Why can't the governments of this world set a good example to the people of their countries that peace and prosperity through diplomacy is the best foot forward in this world. To me the country that has taken these steps in the best possible way is Switzerland, a country that is and always has been neutral even through two world wars.

Snow Fall in Baghdad

To those who do not know much about Iraq besides Saddam Hussain, terrorism and the coalition forces stationed there then it won't mean much, but to others that know Iraq well it will be a huge surprise to find out that snow has fallen in Baghdad.

There are conflicting accounts from Baghdad residents about when the last snow fall was seen in the city as some have said that it was in the early years of the 1940's on the outskirts of the city while an eighty year old female resident of the city who has lived their all her live has said that she had never witnessed snow fall in Iraq before.

The only time snow fall is seen in Iraq is normally in the winter months and only on the peaks of high mountains in the northern Kurdish territories close to the Turkish border.

Due to snow being a new phenomenon it has been a wonderful change for the people of Baghdad who have only seen war for the past few years. Many families were waking up and rushing outside to see the snow flakes falling, to many it was a beautiful sight that brought delight and smiles. One resident from Baghdad was heard saying "This is so unusual, and I don't know whether or not it's a lesson from God".

Hopefully this small token gesture from the environment of Mother Earth will build up some form of hope in the residents of Baghdad and the rest of Iraq that things will get better giving them the life they deserve.

Boeing Could Be Hacked By Passengers

Boeing has been ordered by America's FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to ensure that passengers cannot hack in to the flight system of Boeing's new jet the 787 Dreamliner.

The Federal Aviation Administration has reviewed the new aircrafts control system and believe it is so vunerable that a passenger could use a computer to hack in to its flight system and take control of the plane.

The 787 Dreamliner, which is a new Boeing plane, has already been hit by issues as it had to delay the launch of the plane by six months due to manufacturing problems. Although the Boeing plane has had a lot of issues it is still the fastest selling plane Boeing have ever created with orders of over eight hundred already taken.

Boeing have tried to play down the security issues by saying that it has been in constant talks with the Federal Aviation Administation. Boeing also went on to advise that they have already reached an agreement with the FAA through showing relevant documentation and demonstration of the planes systems to show it has the relevant safeguards.

What concerns me is the fact that the FAA actually had such strong doubts about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the first place. Could you imagine the devastation it would cause if a passenger could simply log on to their laptop in their economy seat and take control of the plane, it could be 9/11 all over again.

They dont make them like they used to

You may be wondering what this post will be about, well this is about the older generation of today and how they just don't make them like they used to. The older generations of today seem to be overlooked and left to get on with their twilight years but what many people seem to forget is what the older generation endured for the lives we live today.

Whether the older generation is from America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia or Algeria for that matter there is something about the older generation that I think makes them super humans compared to the youth of today.

Okay I am rambling and you are wondering where I am going with this post. Well the truth is the grandparents and great grandparents of today lived through wars like no other, and many acts of bravery that have never been replicated were done by the many grey haired old people we see every day.

Take the first world war...how many of you could honestly say you would sit in a wet trench with barrage after barrage of artillery rounds being catapulted towards your trench hour after hour before someone blows a whistle and tells you to climb over the top and start walking...yes walking...towards the enemy who are less than a hundred metres away and are firing at you with machine guns and rifles.

Then we come to the second world war...fought in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa....these men from all walks of life and many different cultures were put to arms and marched across countries to face the enemy on battlefields of all varieties seeing the type of battles that have never been replicated. These men put their life on the line for the good of their countries and did so without complaint.

Now you see that our older generation deserve respect yet people seem to forget about how brave these people are, just because they are old now doesn't mean that they do not have some amazing stories to tell about what they endured in their youth.

Snow and its affects on a country

Having lived in the UK all my life and seen the ravaging effects that one centimetre of snow has on the country as it grinds every day life to a halt, but why is this the case when countries that are not classed among the richest and most powerful in the world see colder weather with greater amounts of snow and they keep on trucking (pardon the pun).

I have just spent the last two weeks in Bulgaria, a wonderful little country in south eastern Europe...its a country that has just joined Europe after escaping communism only 18 years ago and has an average salary of £100 a month...less than every full time UK resident earns in two days.

While spending my time in Bulgaria (which was wonderful by the way) I experienced snow that was up to 60 centimetres in depth and temperatures that went down to minus 31 degrees Celsius and I was shocked to see that this did not stop anyone carrying on their daily business.

Even with temperatures so low and snow past their knees the Bulgarians carried on as normal, driving and walking everywhere...how you may ask?

Well there is a wonderful thing called a tractor that has a snow plough put on the front, these wonderful vehicles drive round all the roads clearing it of snow so drivers can carry on their journeys as needed.

The pedestrians of Bulgaria also make their own little snow footpaths by following each others tracks. This is quite a funny vision to behold as you only see everyone from their knees upwards walking through thinks snow.

My point to all this is how can a country that is wonderful yet not powerful like Bulgaria manage to achieve so much when mother natures plays her hand while the UK cannot when they never even see such quantities of snow during such cold temperatures?

Who created terrorism?

Many would say the problem of terrorism we endure in today's society is a product of the east, but this is far from the truth with the United Kingdom and the United States of America being the two biggest creators of this horrible present day virus.

Many of you are probably thinking of present day western leaders who generated this west hating terrorism that is normally related to the world of Islam through the form of the Taliban and Al Qaeda but you are very wrong.

The issues we face from terrorism takes its roots from the decisions the UK and US took many years ago as you are about to find out.

The Baathist party of Iraq with whom Saddam Hussain raised to power gained control of Iraq in the late 1960's, at this time the US and the UK among other western countries were worried about the Baathist leadership. What these countries don't tell you is that from the late 1960's till the late 1980's right before the first Gulf war the UK and US were selling arms to Saddam Hussain a his party, this meant that when the Gulf war started Saddam Hussain army was equipped with UK and US weapons and were even wearing uniforms made in the United Kingdom.

In the early 1980's Russia (then the Soviet Union) started war in Afghanistan, this was at the same period of the Cold War between he Soviet Union and America which meant America were covertly helping the Afghan cause training and arming the people of Afghanistan against the Soviet forces. These Afghan people and others who were Muslim radicals from around the world who came to fight were known as the Mujahideen (translates as Muslims fighting a struggle through war) and were commanded by Mujahideen warlords rather than the Afghan government of the period....one of these Muslim radicals was a young rich Saudi named Osama Bin Laden.

America sent over many weapons, of which some were the latest in technology at the time, by doing this the Mujahideen managed to see off the Soviet forces. The problem with this was that after the war the Mujahideen warlords started a civil war as they fought each other for power.

The Taliban who were based in the south of Afghanistan (and north Pakistan) marched through Afghanistan and took control of Afghanistan from the feuding Mujahideen warlords.

It is also from this time that Osama Bin Laden is believed to have learnt the skills needed and the following of many fighters from the Afghan-Soviet war to build Al Qaeda in to an international alliance of radical Muslim's that are against America and anyone who supports them.

As you can see the UK and US trained and armed the people that are fighting against them now, not only this they also built Osama Bin Laden in to the person he is by training him and supporting him in building training camps throughout Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war for Mujahideen soldiers.

Make me a Muslim

Channel 4 in the UK is showing a three part series where it takes people and shows them Islam s o they gain a better understanding of the religion. The people chosen are from Harrogate, an area with a population of some 115,000 that only has less than 400 followers of Islam.

This program has already angered me. I have become frustrated and angry at the behaviour of the people who are looking to find out more about the Islamic faith but failing because of their narrow minded views.

One of the participants started arguing about Muslims trying to bring Sharia law in to the UK, have you ever heard this? I think not.

Since when have those that follow Islam ever tried to enforce there views on the people of Britain? Granted they do follow a lifestyle that is different to some and their views differ greatly when it comes to certain subjects but I have never encountered someone of the Islamic faith who has tried to push their view on me.

I have a great many friends who are Muslim and there is never an issue when it comes to religion or the fact that I like an alcoholic drink now and then. I feel it is the media that has created this society where alot of narrow minded individuals have given in to the incorrect information being fed to them through the power of television, tabloids and pub banter.

I do look forward to the next few episodes in this series to see if these individuals who have a total lack of respect for the Islamic faith actually start to see things differently.