Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bra-gain hunters strip down....

Got a sthe-sun.co.uk

Slideshows

Naughty ... half-naked punters scrum for free clothes

Slideshows

Undie-believable ... game sales strippers wait outside

A SAUCY sales ploy saw these women strip to their undies to get free clothes yesterday.

The first 100 people in their pants to brave chilly weather and queue outside Desigual in San Sebastian, northern Spain, could take an outfit home.

Stores in Barcelona and Marbella also had scantily-clad bargain hunters. Maybe they needed some retail phwoar-apy
.

Friday, January 7, 2011

The London Eye goes French...

EDF Energy London Eye sparks backlash on Twitter

Twitter users have expressed their distaste for the renaming of the London Eye as the EDF Energy London Eye following sponsorship from the energy company.

( 0 )

Related Tags:: London; twitter; sponsorship; users; wheel

Fireworks light up the EDF Energy London Eye on New Year's Eve: The new sponsorship money will go towards a refurbishment of the wheel's pods. (Ian Nicholson/PA)

Twitter users emphatically rejected the new name for the iconic wheel in no uncertain terms.

MatthewGidley tweeted: 'The London Eye is being given a new name. "EDF Energy London Eye". Has a nice ring to it. Fetch my pistol?'

While paulmcgarryuk mused: 'London Eye to be renamed EDF Energy London Eye. Next up is "the Coca Cola Buckingham Palace" or "the Irn Bru Houses of Parliament."'

This will be the fourth name in 11 years for the London ride, which was originally called the Millenium Wheel.

French-owned gas and electricity company EDF have signed a three-year sponsorship deal thought to be worth about £8 million, the London Eye is used by 3.5 million tourists each year.

Some Twitter users pointed out however that whatever the wheel's official name Londoners are free to call it what they like.

ItsPaulWallace said: 'People who are up in arms about the London Eye being renamed the EDF Energy London Eye do know they can call it anything they want, right?', with manicvic adding: 'I'm still going to call it the big Ferris Wheel in London.'

Water powered jet pack hovers over boat show-London

To infinity and... James Bond? Futuristic water-powered jet pack wows audiences at London Boat Show

By MATT BLAKE
Last updated at 7:22 PM on 7th January 2011

It looks like a scene from a James Bond movie... That or Buzz Lightyear has actually come to life.

But engineers in Canada have designed a water-powered jet pack that can hover up to 30 metres in the air and reach speeds of 22mph.

And now fans of 007, or indeed Pixar's Toy Story, can get their hands on the high-tech flying machine for just £110,000.

Scroll down for video.

The future: The Jetley Flyer pumps water through tubes using a high-powered engine and costs £110,000

The Jetley-Flyer uses a powerful engine to pump water through a downward pointing tube, propelling the pilot into the air.

It was unveiled over the Thames river outside the ExCel centre in East London.

Sexy police wives put hubbies in hot water-Romania

The police wives' photos posted on Facebook that got two officers suspended

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 1:47 PM on 7th January 2011

Posting photos on Facebook isn't all fun, one group of partying policemen learned the hard way.

Police in Romania have been given a dressing down by bosses after they posted some sexy snaps of their lingerie-clad wives wearing their uniforms on the social networking site.

The pictures were taken at an official New Year party at the police headquarters in Constanta.

Pictured: Posting snapshots like these of lingerie wearing wives of policemen resulted in some officer suspensions

They feature wives stripped down to their stockings and lingerie wearing police shirts and caps.

One is seen fondling what looks like a police-issue handgun in the pictures, now removed from the website by furious senior officers.

'It was just meant to be a bit of a joke but it went too far,' said one officer.

Two officers have been suspended pending a formal investigation, a police spokesman confirmed.

Aircraft carrier to end up as nightclub...

After glory in the Falklands, HMS Invincible could end its days as a floating NIGHTCLUB in China

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:13 PM on 7th January 2011

A Chinese restaurant chain owner has launched an audacious bid to buy the legendary Falklands warship HMS Invincible - and convert it into a nightclub.

Kin Bong Lam, chairman of the Wing Wah empire, has submitted a £5million bid to the Ministry of Defence for the iconic vessel, which helped to win the Falklands War against Argentina in 1982.

Mr Lam wants to ship the carrier China and convert it into a nightclub or even a restaurant.

The light aircraft carrier, a former flagship of the British fleet, has fallen on hard times in recent years and is currently languishing in Portsmouth's dockyard with her engines stripped out and propellers lying on deck.

Plans: Wing Wah boss Kin Bong Lan is bidding £5million to buy the warship

The ship was decommissioned in 2005 and has been put up for sale on a Government version of eBay.

At the height of its use the 17,000 ton vessel was powered by four Rolls-Royce gas turbine engines, could reach a speed of 28 knots and had a ship compliment of 1,050 sailors.

It had been used in the Falklands, Balkans and Iraq Wars before undergoing a major refit in 2004 and being decommissioned a year later.

Tender bids for the Invincible have now been submitted and potential owners are likely to learn the outcome of the bidding process within a few weeks.

Mr Lam said he wants to buy the Invincible through his South China company Sunway Yachts and ship the carrier to China for renovation.

The Birmingham-based tycoon said he is branching out into military salvage operations to save the former pride of the Royal Navy.

He said: ‘The MOD has said that it cannot be used for military purposes but I do think we can make good use of the vessel without it being scrapped.

‘I am sure that the Royal Navy will be very proud if we can create something that will be of use for people in the future the Invincible has a very distinguished history.

Cheers: Invincible being waved off in Portsmouth as it head to the Falklands War

Cheers: Invincible being waved off in Portsmouth as it heads to the Falklands War

Last big job: HMS Invincible lsets sail to the Gulf in January 2003

‘The plan is to transport it to China and utilise it as an educational institution, a school or college. Or it could be used as a leisure facility, as a nightclub or restaurant.

‘We will know in a few weeks' time.

'Everything is sealed and they will not tell us anything yet.’

Mr Lam, whose Wing Wah empire has seven restaurants across the West Midlands, also runs import and export, yachting and property investment businesses in China.

The Wing Wah chain was voted one of the top 20 Chinese restaurants in the UK in 2008 after opening 11 years ago.

The aircraft carrier was decommissioned five years ago, 28 years after it was launched by the Queen.

Future: HMS Invincible's interior could end up like this if the MoD give the go-ahead

The Portsmouth-based HMS Invincible was put into a state of 'low level of readiness' until last year, when it was put on sale.

The advert on edisposals.com, which expired on Wednesday, says: ‘HMS Invincible is for sale by tender.

‘She is currently stable for tow, subject to buyer confirmation.’

An MOD spokesperson said: ‘We are considering a number of bids but we cannot say any more until there has been full consideration.’

Drunk driver takes lonely goat on date.

Drunk driver: I am escorting my lonely goat on a date, officer

Astonished police who stopped a car for drink driving found a horny goat in the passenger seat being taken on a date by his farmer owner.

( 0 )

Related Tags:: Poland; goat; driver; lonely; officer

It's a date: Goat found in car (Picture: CEN)

The 54-year-old driver - who was three times over the drink drive limit - claimed his goat had been 'lonely' and he'd been to a friend's farm in Kretzyn, Poland, to meet a female goat.

'They had had a few vodkas to break the ice and then some more to celebrate and by the the time he left with his now not so lonely goat he was very drunk,' said one officer.

'He was very sorry but he was a danger to other drivers. He's lost his licence and he may well go to prison for a while,' he added.

Women want to marry rich men....

What women really want: to marry a rich man

Women still want to marry men who are better educated and earn more money than them, a report finds today.

Gender pay gap down to women's lifestyle choices Photo: ALAMY

By Tim Ross, Social Affairs Editor 7:00AM GMT 04 Jan 2011

104 Comments

The idea that women dislike being financially dependent on men is a myth, with more choosing to “marry up” now than did so in the 1940s, according to Dr Catherine Hakim from the London School of Economics.

After decades of gender equality campaigning many women now find it hard to admit that they want to be a housewife more than they want a successful career of their own, she said.

The study comes after the Coalition announced a series of measures intended to narrow the pay gap between men and women.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equalities minister, said large companies could be forced to declare how much more they pay men and announced that firms would be able to use “positive action” to recruit new staff from under-represented groups for the first time.

However, Dr Hakim criticised David Cameron for backing the idea of quotas to ensure that more women gain seats on the boards of leading companies. Men dominate top positions because many women simply do not want long careers in business, she said.

Five feminist 'myths' from the gender equality debate
04 Jan 2011
Long relationships - not necessarily marriage - key to good health: research
04 Jan 2011
Pay gap 'down to women's lifestyle', says academic
19 Dec 2010
Employers could favour women for jobs
02 Dec 2010

Despite 40 years of reforms to promote gender equality at work, a woman’s financial dependence on a man “has lost none of its attractions”, she said.

In a 52-page report published by the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, Dr Hakim continued: “Women’s aspiration to marry up, if they can, to a man who is better-educated and higher-earning, persists in most European countries.

“Women thereby continue to use marriage as an alternative or supplement to their employment careers.”

Dr Hakim’s research drew on an extensive review of existing studies from around the world, census data, and national surveys conducted in Britain and Spain.

An analysis of figures for Britain shows that in 1949, 20 per cent of women married husbands with significantly higher levels of education than their own.

By the late 1990s, the proportion of women who were “marrying up” had almost doubled to 38 per cent. Similar patterns are seen across much of Europe, the US and Australia.

The widely promoted goal of “symmetrical family roles”, with men and women sharing child-care, housework and employment, is popular among a highly educated, professional elite. But it is “not the ideal sought by most couples”, the report said.

“It is thus not surprising that wives generally earn less than their husbands, and that most couples rationally decide that it makes sense for her to take on the larger share of childcare, and use most or all the parental leave allowance.”

Dr Hakim said many women did not want to “admit” that they were looking for a higher earning partner. They even keep the fact secret from the men they are dating, she said.

“It has become impossible to say ‘I wouldn’t mind being a housewife,’” she said. “It is so politically incorrect that a lot of women don’t want to admit it.”

The report said that the “war” for equal opportunities between men and women was now over in the UK.

The gap in pay between the two sexes has fallen from about 30% in the 1970s to as low as 10% today. Women do now have an equal opportunity to find work, but choose different priorities for their lives.

The report said it was wrong for politicians to expect that equal opportunities would result in equal numbers of women as men in particular jobs.

Humans go batty to wrap a bat in a blanket....Australia.

Strewth, this weather's totally batty! It's not only the humans who have lost their homes in the Australian floods

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:20 PM on 7th January 2011

Torrential rain has brought chaos to Australia, and not just to the humans who live there.

Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre director Trish Wimberley and her carers have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks.

They saved 350 young bats during the 2008 storm season but this year think there's more going on than just wild weather.

Baby bats at the Bat Clinic in Advancetown, which has helped at least 130 baby bats after the wet weather

Worker Wendy Wimberley lovingly tends to baby bats at the Bat Clinic, where patient numbers are up this year

Carers have visited several bat 'camps' on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs.

Trish said: 'They're coming down to feed on the ground. That makes them vulnerable. It's not a natural occurrence and shows there is trouble in the environment.

'Bats are a barometer to what is going on in the environment. They're our canaries down the coal mine'.

The surviving youngsters will be bottle fed and kept either hanging on clothes lines or in special intensive care units until they are ready to fly again in about four weeks.

The winged mammals are bottle fed, wrapped up and hung on clotheslines until they are well enough to be released

Meanwhile on Friday residents of northeast Australia returned to homes caked in sludge and nervously watched the skies for more rain while waiting for swollen rivers to recede.

The worst appeared to have passed from flooding that covered an area the size of France and Germany in murky brown water for longer than a week, but torrents still posed dangers in partly-submerged towns in Queensland state and progress on assessing damage and rebuilding was slow.

On Friday, police banned boats from the swollen river coursing through the city of Rockhampton that is expected to remain near its peak for another 10 days.

The scope of the damage is not yet known, and fully repairing all of the infrastructure washed away or ruined could take years, the army general heading recovery efforts said.

The Quirky Globe

Pages