]]>Young Woman: "We've come to check whether you've had your reductions from Talk Talk"
faddy (laughing helplessly) "No thanks. Bye."
And they went.
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]]>Going through security faddy sets off the metal detector. Arms out. Frisked. Shoes examined.
"What's that in your trouser pocket?"
"My wallet."
"Oh, it will probably be that, then"
Doesn't check it. Waves me on. Aaaaaargh.
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]]>Pilot’s UFO shock
by Joel de Woolfson
UFO sightings are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.
Two experienced airline pilots on separate flights saw something up to a mile wide off the coast of Alderney on Monday afternoon. Surprisingly, Jersey radar equipment did not pick up the object, although an air traffic controller said he had received simultaneous reports from the Aurigny and Blue Islands pilots.
Aurigny’s Captain Ray Bowyer, 50, said he saw the strange object during a flight from Southampton.
He spotted a bright-yellow light 10 miles west of Alderney while his plane was about 30 miles from the island and at 4,000ft.
‘It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000ft up and stationary,’ he said.
‘I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a 737.’
A 737 is slightly smaller than a jumbo jet.
‘But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide.’
As he continued his approach to Alderney, Capt. Bowyer saw a second identical object further to the west.
‘It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey.’
The sightings come days after reports that scientists have discovered outside our solar system an Earth-like planet capable of supporting extraterrestrial life.
‘I can’t explain it. At first, I thought it might have been a reflection from a vinery in Guernsey, but that would have disappeared quickly. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.’
The sightings happened at about 3pm. Capt. Bowyer, who has flown commercial planes for about 20 years, said he had described the objects to air traffic control and filled in an incident report.
‘As I got closer to it, it became clear to me that it was tangible. I was in two minds about going towards it to have a closer look but decided against it because of the size of it. I had to think of the safety of the passengers first.’
He added that the experience had been quite scary.
‘I’m certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I’m saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying.’
Paul Kelly, 31, the air traffic controller who was on duty, said the Blue Islands pilot had made a similar report, but nothing had appeared on his radar.
‘The pilot from Blue Islands was en route to Jersey at the same time and as he went past Sark he described an object behind him to his left,’ he said.
‘The description was very similar to Captain Bowyer’s and they described it as being in exactly the same place. But they were looking at it from opposite sides.’
The pilot told him the object had been 1,500ft beneath his plane.
‘The Blue Islands plane was at 3,500ft at the time so, again, both pilots placed it at the same altitude.
‘If the object was stationary, our equipment would not have picked it up because the radar would have screened it out.’
- Guernsey Press & Star yesterday
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]]>GM protesters pick wrong field in bid to disrupt potato trial
Hugh Muir
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The Guardian
The operation to sabotage the government's GM potato trial was planned with care and under conditions of great secrecy. Two hundred and fifty protesters swooped on the 16-hectare site outside Hull, armed with shovels and filled with indignation.
In less than an hour they had moved to invalidate the trial, planting thousands of organic potatoes. Mission accomplished. If only they had got the right field.
Activists from Mutatoes.org yesterday apologised to farmer David Buckton after it emerged that they wrongly identified his land as the site of the GM trial. The field they planted was sown with beans.
By the time Mr Buckton was alerted to the protesters on his land, it was too late to stop the direct action. The protesters were determined to move quickly on the basis that the land would be rendered unsuitable for the GM trials once other root crops were in the ground.
In a statement Mutatoes.org said: "With the information that we had and the short timescale available to us ... we sincerely believed this to be the correct field. The public were not given sufficient information by the government, who supplied only a four-figure grid reference for the location of the trial."
The group said they conducted extensive investigations within the area specified by the environment department and outside. "While it is regrettable that the wrong site and farmer were targeted, we would also like to make it clear ... that people will continue to disrupt the planting of GM crops despite the difficulties faced by this lack of full disclosure," the group added.
Yesterday Mr Buckton, 54, said the mix-up was the strangest event to have befallen his family in four generations of farming. He said the protesters were accompanied by two police officers on horseback.
"I told the police officers that it was a bean field but they said the protest seemed peaceful so we'd better let them get on with it. The beans are just about peeping through. The protesters should have been able to see that," he said.
Mr Buckton said he had no great enthusiasm for GM crops. "I certainly wouldn't have been giving up my land to test them, he said." The company BASF plans trials of GM potatoes at two sites: Cambridge, which already has government approval, and in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
]]>When faddy's father was born, his grandparents were all dead.
When faddy was born, he had one surviving grandparent, and met him twice.
When faddy's eldest was born, she had three surviving grandparents and a great-grandmother, and met them all in her first couple of months of life.
And now faddy's week old grandson has met his four grandparents and four of his seven surviving great-grandparents.
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