Monkey Mayhem at Longleat

The meddling macaques haven’t had any cars to abuse for the past two years because their Monkey Jungle enclosure has been closed to the public while it was redeveloped.

So staff thought they’d give the park’s notoriously cheeky residents a treat before the grand re-opening this weekend.

Needless to say, the 100-strong furry gang had a ball. The wing mirrors and wheel trims were quickly swiped and the suitcases on the roof ransacked.

The animals delighted in running around with various items of clothing they found in them – one even did several forward rolls while holding a blue top.

A cuddly lion toy also provided much fascination, with one monkey at first jumping back in fright as if he thought for a second that it was real.

Staff also packed a football for the beasts to play with. However, one monkey commits a handball straightaway, then runs off with it in his mouth. A definite yellow card.

There are 22 species of macaque monkeys and they are the most widespread primates in the world. They can be found from Japan to Afghanistan, as well as North Africa.

Longleat, the country seat of the Marquesses of Bath, was the first stately home open to the public. Its safari park opened in 1966 and claims to be the first such attraction outside Africa.

CUTE ALERT! Slow Loris holds a tiny umbrella

Eggs boiled in boys urine anyone?

Traditional chefs in Dongyang, Zhejiang province, eastern China, are trying to convince everyone that they're really not just taking the pee.

Spring eggs hard boiled in children's urine have been a treat in this part of China for thousands of years and now culture officials want to take it worldwide.

Chef Lu Ming said: 'The urine is gathered from local schools and the very best comes from boys under 10 years old. They pee in buckets and we collect it fresh every day,'

Then the eggs - which have official cultural significance status - are boiled in the wee, first with their shells on and then with them off for a day and a night before they're ready to be eaten.

He said: 'The eggs are delicious and healthy. They stop fevers and can help you concentrate if you're feeling sluggish or sleepy.

'We are having a big export push because we want people outside China to fully appreciate the delicacy of our cuisine.'

Story and source: Metro

THIS IS JUST WRONG!

Coka Cola Random Facts

• Coca-Cola made its world debut at the Jacobs' Pharmacy soda fountain in Atlanta, where it sold for 5 cents a glass in 1886.

• In the first year Coca-Cola creator John Pemberton sold an average of just nine glasses a day. The company now sells 1.4 billion beverage servings every day.

• John Pemberton died in 1888 without realising the success of the beverage he had created.

• Asa Griggs Candler, an Atlanta businessman, bought up the rights to the business between 1888 and 1891 for a total of $2,300. By 1895, the drink was in demand nationwide and Candler had built syrup plants in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.

• The men who served Coca-Cola at soda fountains were called Soda Jerks because of the jerking motion they made preparing a glass of the fizzy drink. They traditionally wore a white hat and a white coat or apron.

• Marathon cyclists were the first athletes to endorse Coca-Cola. World champion and Georgia-native Bobby Walthour appeared in a 1909 newspaper advertisement that now hangs at the company's World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

• Despite Candler's successes, he didn't fully realise the potential of bottled Coca-Cola that people could enjoy anywhere and in 1899, two lawyers, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, secured exclusive rights from Candler to bottle and sell the beverage – for the sum of only $1.

• Coca-Cola's first bottling plant in Asia opened in the Philippines in 1912. Coca-Cola's first bottling plant in Europe opened in France in 1919.

• The company, concerned by 'copycat drinks' focused its advertising on the authenticity of Coca-Cola. It decided to create a distinctive bottle shape to assure people they were actually getting a real Coca-Cola. In 1916, the contour bottle, which remains the signature shape of Coca-Cola today, was chosen for its attractive appearance, original design and the fact that, even in the dark, you could identify the genuine article.

• The Coca-Cola six-pack carton was introduced in 1923, an innovation at the time.

• The character Sprite Boy was introduced in 1942 – decades before the Sprite drink. Sprite Boy helped tell people it was OK to use the name "Coke" to refer to Coca-Cola, something the company had previously resisted.

• It took Coca-Cola 70 years to expand into new flavours: Fanta, originally developed in the 1940s, was introduced in the 1950s; Sprite followed in 1961, with TAB in 1963 and Fresca in 1966. In 1960, The Coca-Cola Company acquired The Minute Maid Company, adding an entirely new line of business – juices. The company now has an astounding portfolio of 500 brands and ’3,300 beverages’.

• Coca-Cola advertising came into its own with the, now famous, 1971 commericial featuring young people from around the world gathered on a hilltop singing "I'd like to buy the world a Coke".

• Diet Coke was introduced in the 1980s – the "era of legwarmers, headbands and the fitness craze" according to Coca-Cola's website.

• Coke was guilty of "the worst marketing blunder ever" in 1985 when it released "new Coke", changing the recipe for the first time in 99 years. In taste tests people had said they loved the new flavour, but when it was released to the market place there was an outcry from customers and Coke was forced into U-turn, bringing back the original flavour as Coca-Cola classic.

• The Coca-Cola Polar Bear was introduced in 1993 as part of the "Always Coca-Cola" campaign.

• Coca-Cola is the only grocery product to have had sales of over £1bn in the UK.

• Coca-Cola has spawned a number of myths, including that it was originally green (the bottle was green but the drink has always been brown); that teeth, steaks, coins and other items will dissolve if left in a glass of Coca-Cola overnight (they won't) and that traffic officers have used the drink to clean stains off roads after traffic accidents (there are no recorded instances).

Taken from: Telegraph

A bit of Summer as we leave Winter... FAILS!

Ah.... the smell of flowers, the sun popping out and fails!!

Ghost forces Kondhwa school to shut

Sultan Shaikh of Kondhwa is not willing to send his children to school. The children say they are scared to even step into the school as they feel it is haunted. Last Monday, almost all students of Lady Haleema Begum Urdu School, Kondhwa, fled after what they claim was supernatural activity in school.

Five days after the incident, the children are yet to go to school. “If you want to send your children to school then send them, it is not our problem,” this is what the school authorities said according to Shaikh who was bewildered at the claims of the school. Other claims by children include finding random death threats in their notebooks and also seeing an egg-shaped, white ghost on the blackboard.

The authorities of the school have suspended all classes till Monday as parents said the children were scared and did not want to go to the school.

Parvika Khan, the teacher who was conducting an Urdu class for Class 5 last Monday, asked a boy to read the text on the blackboard. But the boy said the blackboard was blank, and ran away screaming that he saw an “egg-shaped ghost” coming out of the blackboard.

It set off panic among students and led to closure of the school for the day.

“It is a conspiracy. Someone wants to defame the school. They must have prompted the boy. We have lodged a police complaint and have sought an inquiry into the matter,” said Rashid Khan, chairman of the Western Maharashtra Educational Trust, which runs the school.

Story and source: Indian Express

Magic Trick Fail

Watch closely at the end......

3DS vs Playstation NGP

I like the look of the NGP.... It will be interesting to see a GTA on it!!

SO which will it be 3DS of NGP? I think I will be going for the NGP!

Modern Warfare 3 will be a prequel featuring Ghost, source claims

The latest issue of the mag claims that 'insider whispers' are suggesting that 'Infinity Ward's next Modern Warfare title will be a prequel, with Ghost in the lead role'.

That's all it says, but as you may notice the story is identical to rumours that began emerging last month, that said Modern Warfare 3 would be a prequel with the mysterious Ghost in the lead role. That probably means either the story's true or the Official PlayStation Magazine is just repeating the old news as their own.

The previous rumours were a little more detailed and suggested that you'd be 'revisiting familiar locations from both the Modern Warfare games, but from different perspectives'. The new game is also supposedly using the same game engine from Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops.

Apart from the setting of the game there's also confusion as to who's making it, considering last year's meltdown at series creators Infinity Ward. The most recent rumour is that Infinity Ward is taking the lead on the game, but that they'll be helped by both new studio Sledgehammer and Wolfenstein developer Raven Software.

It's also possible that new studio Beachhead might be involved, which publisher Activision recently revealed were working on a 'digital platform' for Call Of Duty. What exactly this means is still not clear, but it's thought to be some sort of subscription-based multiplayer service.

Story and source: Metro

I seem to remember reading this a while back too! Bring back ghost!!

Quarter of UK has had ‘ghostly encounter’

It’s a statistic that will send a shiver down the spine of the nation, especially as paranormal experiences are on the increase.

In the 1950s, the figure was just seven per cent, rising to 14 per cent in the 1990s and 19 per cent in 2003.

Are the undead on the march?

Fear not, because Professor Wiseman, who doesn’t believe in ghosts, thinks that TV is to blame for the large number of wraiths and bumps in the night that are being reported.

Ghosts have never been so popular on television, with shows such as Most Haunted, Ghost Hunters and Famous And Frightened attracting large numbers of fans.

‘It's a surprisingly high figure, and it's interesting that the proportion of people who say they believe in ghosts has remained the same as it has been for many years, which is about a third,’ said Prof Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire.

‘My only thought is that, because there have been a lot of ghost shows on TV, people may just be more likely to attribute certain experiences, like hearing creaky floorboards, to ghosts. All these shows are feeding off the perception that these things actually exist and not looking at the psychological perspective.’

Professor Wiseman produced a ‘ghost map’ of Britain alongside his findings, which shows that the largest number of ghostly goings-on - experienced by up to 30 per cent of the population – were reported in Yorkshire and Humberside, the East Midlands and Wales.

London and the South East was the least spooked region, with just a fifth of the population claiming to have had a ghostly experience.

Story and source: Metro

Spiders lead to Mazda recall

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Mazda is recalling about 52,000 Mazda6 sedans in the U.S., because yellow sac spiders like to build their nests in part of the fuel system.

"A certain type of spider may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction of the line," Mazda said in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The evaporative canister vent line runs from a charcoal-filled canister that cleans air coming out of the gas tank. Blockage of the line can prevent air from getting into the gas tank as the gasoline is used, resulting in negative air pressure inside the tank. That can lead to a crack in the gas tank and the possibility of a fire.

There have been 20 reported cases of spider infestation in the Mazda6 -- all have been in cars with 4-cylinder engines, none with V6's. No actual fires are known to have been caused by the spiders, according to Mazda's letter.

Dealers will inspect and, if necessary, repair the fuel system in the cars. A spring will also be installed to prevent spider intrusion, according to the letter.

Letters will be mailed to owners of affected vehicles beginning at the end of this month.

It's unclear why this particular spider -- the yellow sac spider -- seems to prefer the model year 2009 and 2010 Mazda6, company spokesman Jeremy Barnes said. All modern cars have the same type of equipment.

"Maybe they just like cars that go 'Zoom-Zoom'," he said. "We honestly don't know."

Story and source: CNN