SNIPPETS

APRIL 29,  2010

ST. MONANS, Scotland, April 28 (UPI) -- A former Scottish police station is being sold as a vacation home, with the seller calling it "the ideal place to hide your mother-in-law."  John Bankhead, management partner at selling agents J and E Shepherd in Anstruther, said the former police station in St. Monans includes a holding cell, a reception office, a waiting room and a restroom, The Scotsman reported Wednesday.

For an extra $100,000 it comes with Bonnie and Clyde.

APRIL 28,  2010

From London's Telegraph:  A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical Christians said they had uncovered remnants of Noah's Ark on its legendary mountain resting place in Turkey.  Noah's Ark Ministries International, a Hong Kong-based documentary outfit, said they recovered wooden specimens from a structure on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey that carbon dating proved the material was 4800 years old, around the same time the ark is said to have been afloat.

No word of animal remains.  Kinda messes up the story, but the tourists will go for it.

APRIL 27,  2010

Social networking news, from London's Telegraph:  Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President, has announced that he will start using Twitter, the microblogging site which will test his ability to deliver a concise message.

Not good enough.  I want him to have a Facebook page.  Then we can check all his "friends."

APRIL 26,  2010

Social news, from The Times of London:   A Bournemouth student emerged this weekend as the unlikely wedge that drove apart a princess and her playboy fiancé, ending one of Europe’s most glamorous royal romances.  The wedding of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Jonas Bergstrom, a lawyer, was called off on Saturday after Tora Uppstrom Berg, a 21-year-old photography student at Arts University College Bournemouth, claimed that she had had an affair with the prince-to-be.  “They have decided that the best for them is to go their separate ways,” the palace said in a statement...

This is Sweden?  This was supposed to be the free, liberated society?  I guess no one told the royals.  Of course, under the Swedish welfare system the jilted princess is now eligible for free psychiatric care because of her emotional distress.

APRIL 25,  2010

BESSACARR, England, April 23 (UPI) -- A British mother said she and her partner were shocked when their newborn son came out weighing 13 pounds and 15 ounces.  Sharon Needham, 35, of Bessacarr, England, said she and baby Harry's father, Paul Crossland, 51, were stunned to see the size of their baby, which Doncaster Royal Infirmary employees said is the heaviest newborn at the hospital since they began keeping computer records in 1994, the Doncaster Free Press reported Friday.

Question:  Under British socialized medicine, does the mother get fined for exceeding the weight goals?  Will the government pay for treating only the first 10 pounds of baby?