AFP issued this picture of Hollande yesterday, then withdrew it. When it went viral they then reinstated it.
“I’m the President – I am – I am!” Francois Hollande
Photo – AFP
I particularly like these from The Guardian’s gallery of politicians caught in less than flattering moments:
” I tell you – we are all going to die!” Al Gore
Photograph: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images
“You all get up my nose” – Geert Wilders
Photograph: Marcel Antonisse/AFP/Getty Images
It is at this time every year when apples have fallen to the ground and are gently fomenting, that the stories of drunken elk (which are not moose) proliferate in Sweden. We usually get the odd elk cleaning up under our apple tree but – so far – we have never encountered an intoxicated animal. Elk find apples – and other fruits and berries – irresistible. Their resistance to intoxication seems relatively low and drunken elk get quite feisty. This time a gang of five drunken elk got very stroppy and barred a resident from entering his own home. However, as the police report reads “Police who arrived on the scene reported that the animals had been warned that the police were on their way and wisely decided to leave the address,”
A gang of angry drunken elk barred a man from entering his home in suburban Stockholm on Tuesday, leaving the frightened homeowner no choice but to call police for help. “Five drunken elk were threatening a resident who was barred from entering his own home,” read an incident report on the website of the Stockholm police department.
The author of the report confirmed that the homeowner, who lives on the island of Ingarö in Stockholm’s eastern suburbs, was justified in calling the police for help. “I’m not surprised that he called the police when he was faced with a gang of five drunken elk,” police spokesman Albin Näverberg told The Local. “They can be really dangerous. They become fearless. Instead of backing away when a person approaches, they move toward you. They may even take a run at you.”
The incident involved four adult elk and one calf, Näverberg explained, all of whom were intoxicated after having eaten fermented apples that had fallen from the homeowner’s apple tree.
“Police who arrived on the scene reported that the animals had been warned that the police were on their way and wisely decided to leave the address,” the report read.
“The elk will have to find somewhere else to get intoxicated.”
Perhaps the most famous photograph of a drunken elk is from September 2011 of this one which got itself stuck in an apple tree
When The Local talked to Per Johansson about the elk (no, it’s not a moose) that had been caught in a tree after a fermented apples bender, he would never have imagined his words would be repeated worldwide. Type “elk in a tree” into Google, you’ll find 29 million hits. Worryingly, “moose in a tree” gives even more.
Photo: Gustav Johansson
Found at Coconuts Bangkok (via 22 words)
Designed by the students at Kasetsart University, Bangkok. Now discontinued.
No cheating hats at Kasetsart University, Bangkok
Bangkok’s Kasetsart University announced today that it has decided to end the use of its anti-cheating helmets.
A photo of the horse blinder-like device was first posted on Coconuts Bangkok yesterday. Shortly thereafter the post went viral as thousands of netizens commented and shared the photo.
The university said that its agro-industry faculty students had designed the headgear as part of an ethics lesson. Natdanai Rungruangkitkrai, the course lecturer, said he seriously regretted that the issue had received such a strong negative response. He added that he had intended to teach the students about ethics and as part of the lesson he had asked them to think creatively about how to prevent cheating.
The students proposed different sets of exam papers and boxes, but they finally agreed to use A-4 paper blinders. The students said they had seen similar headsets in other countries. About 90 students agreed to the use of the blinkers and to make the hats themselves on the exam day. Asst Prof Tanaboon Sajjaanantakul, the faculty’s dean, said the device was used for a mid-term examination for a textile testing course.
From this years submissions to the THE (not in any order of rank):
In a paper on HIV/AIDS transmission, as an example of “risky” behaviour likely to spread infection, a student listed “sharing a condom”.
Some rather interesting exam howlers can be found here.
The Hindu carries a story on the tough life of a porter at an Indian Railway Station and it brought back memories from my childhood of travelling the length and breadth of India by train.
An integral part of the memories are about the man in red and his amazing abilities:
porter at an indian railway station (The Hindu photo vijaya bhaskar)
US jets on a training exercise – said to have gone wrong – have dropped four 500lb bombs on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The bombs are said to have been unarmed and did not explode – apparently.
BBC: US fighter jets dropped inert bombs on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s coast during a training exercise that went wrong, it has emerged. The two planes jettisoned four bombs in more than 50m (165 ft) of water, away from coral, to minimise damage to the World Heritage Site, the US navy said.
The jets had intended to drop at a bombing range on a nearby island, but Tuesday’s mission was aborted. The AV-8B Harriers were low on fuel and could not land loaded, the navy added. The emergency happened during the training exercise Talisman Saber, involving US and Australian military personnel. The two jets had been instructed to target the bombing range on Townshend Island. However, the mission was aborted when hazards were reported in the area.
The planes then dropped the bombs in the marine park off the coast of Queensland. None of the devices exploded.
King of the Coral Reef
The Reef put up no resistance and is expected to surrender shortly, The worlds largest coral reef is known to harbour many dangerous species. It is uncertain if any are affiliated to Al Qaeda. The King of the Coral Reef was unavailable for comment.
The animals of the Great Barrier Reef include some 1500 species of marine fish, 360 species of hard corals, between 5000 and 8000 species of mollusks, 600 species of echinoderms, 17 species of sea snakes, 1500 species of sponges, 30 species of whales and dolphins, 6 species of marine turtles, 22 species of seabirds and 32 species of shorebirds which breed on the reef’s many small islands.
From Science is Beauty:
The goings-on in Egypt and Gaza and North Africa where democratically “elected” leaders – albeit leaders who are undemocratic and Islamist – cannot get acceptance in the rest of the “democratic” world brings to mind the story of the Irish, socialist monarch.
Two Irishmen were sorting out the problems of the world in the pub – as one usually does in a pub.
After the sixth pint they had resolved the Irish Unification Issue, the Palestinian Issue, the Syrian Issue and the Chinese-Japanese Territorial conflict. But they were floundering when they came to the issue of Poverty and Starving Children. They could not agree even on what constituted Poverty. Could it be if or when you could not buy the fourth pint?
This led to the seventh pint. And the eighth and the ninth and then suddenly Sean’s face lit up.
“Begorrah Mick”, he exclaimed. “I have it now! The solushun is simpul. All the wurld has to do is to moik me the King of the World”.
“And how will that help?” asked a skeptical Mick.
“It’s reely simpul,” explained Sean. “If Oi was the King of the Wurld, I would collect all the monny there was or ever would be and Oi would distribut it equally – but equally – to evry living pershun – Cathlick or not”.
Mick was still marshalling his many cogent arguments against this vision of King Sean when Sean continued. “And when I had spent all moine, why I would just do it all over again”!
The Egyptian military would recognise the solution.
Democracy by “free and fair” elections is by far the best alternative – provided of course that you can have another “free and fair” election if you don’t like the result of the first one.
And so on ad infinitum till you get the result you want.
I wrote this – following the words of the Bard – about something else
The quality of intelligence is not strain’d,
It may not be shaped or created or invented
to suit a man’s convenience. It is twice cursed:
It curses him who invents and curses the fool who believes.
and then realised it could easily be adapted to fit “hockey stick” climate science
The quality of climate science is not strain’d,
It may not be shaped or tricked into a hockey stick
to suit a Mann’s convenience. It is twice cursed:
It curses him who tricks and curses the fools who believe.
A new virus could kill you deader than SARS could says this headline from the Washington Post today (20th June 2013).
more fatal
The k2p blog 