Cocoa

Development of Proteus 5 is rocketing along very happily. Now contacts appear in the contact list and a message centre pops up when needed. Now conversations are being worked upon as are status images.

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Gordon Brown has suffered a devastating blow with a new opinion poll showing Labour’s support in a general election falling behind the Liberal Democrats for the first time in 22 years.

The ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph is the worst possible news for the Prime Minister as he enters his most important week since taking power with Labour expecting a hammering in Thursday’s local and European elections.

The results, which show Labour has suffered particularly badly from the MPs’ expenses scandal in voters’ eyes, are certain to ratchet up speculation that Mr Brown will face a leadership challenge in the next few weeks.

Asked who they would support in a general election, only 22 per cent of voters back Labour, with the party slumping behind both the Conservatives on 40 per cent and, crucially for Mr Brown’s future, the Liberal Democrats who are on 25 per cent.

The last time Labour was in third place in any poll in a “general election” question was in 1987 – when the party was reeling from defeat in a by-election held in Greenwich and hard-left local councils were tarnishing its reputation across the country.

The results when voters were asked who they would support in Thursday’s elections to the European parliament are no better for Mr Brown.

Labour again comes third with just 17 per cent, down from the 22.5 per cent the party achieved in what was judged a poor performance in the last set of such elections, in 2004.

The Conservatives lead in today’s poll with 29 per cent, while the Lib Dems are on 20 per cent.

~ UK Telegraph

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The Liberal Democrats are currently at 22% in he UK polls.

Labour, the ruling party, are only at 28%.

Therefore, if the Lib Dems capture 4% from Labour, they take over as the second party for the first time in decades!

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A hardline Hindu organization, known for its opposition to “corrupting” Western food imports, is planning to launch a new soft drink made from cow’s urine, often seen as sacred in parts of India.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or National Volunteer Corps, said the bovine beverage is undergoing laboratory tests for the next 2 to 3 months but did not give a specific date for its commercial release.

The flavor is not yet known, but the RSS said the liquid produced by Hinduism’s revered holy cows is being mixed with products such as aloe vera and gooseberry to fight diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

~ Reuters

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Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

~ Reuters

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More British passengers died on the Titanic because they queued politely for lifeboats, researchers believe.

A behavioural economist says data suggests Britons in that era were more inclined to be “gentlemanly” while Americans were more “individualist”.

Women with children had a 70% better chance of survival than men in such an environment, he told the BBC.

The Titanic sank during its maiden voyage in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, with the loss of 1,500 lives.

David Savage, from Queenland University of Technology, studied the disaster to look at how people react in life and death situations.

He said that in testimonies from inquiries in America and Britain just after the event, there were a lot of statements from women saying their husbands put them on lifeboats.

They then “went to the back of the boat to have a cigar, to stand around and be chummy, while basically the boat went down.”

Mr Savage said: “There was one gentleman who was rather wealthy… who went back downstairs after he put his wife on the [life] boat… put on his tuxedo…went back upstairs and smoked… with the idea that if I am going die, I may as well die as a gentleman and well-dressed.”

‘Peak of society’

The “unsinkable” ocean liner went down in freezing Atlantic waters during its voyage from Southampton to New York. As it sank, the captain, Edward John Smith, shouted: “Be British, boys, be British,” according to witnesses.

“The American culture was set up to be a more individualist culture and the British culture was more about the gentlemanly behaviour,” Mr Savage says.”You’ve got to remember that this is the Edwardian period when to be a gentleman was the peak of society.”

Mr Savage also concludes that social norms such as “women and children first” were very strong in British culture and survived in such an environment.

~ BBC News

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There’s no way to know if hell has frozen over, but it’s official — pigs can fly.

An embarrassed US Airways is promising it will never again allow barnyard animals onto its flights after a hog accompanied 200 human passengers on a six-hour flight from Philadelphia to Seattle on Oct. 17.

“We can confirm that the pig traveled, and we can confirm that it will never happen again,” US Airways spokesman David Castelveter said. “Let me stress that. It will never happen again.”

Sources familiar with the incident told the Philadelphia Daily News for yesterday’s editions that two women, the pig’s owners, convinced the airline the animal was a “therapeutic companion pet,” like a guide dog for the blind.

An internal US Airways incident report said the owners claimed they had a doctor’s note that allowed them to fly with the animal.

US Airways and Federal Aviation Administration rules allow passengers to fly with service animals.

“According to (the) Philadelphia agent who talked to passenger over phone . . . passenger described pig as being 13 pounds, so based on this info, authorization was given,” the report stated.

Passengers on the flight told the Daily News that the pig actually weighed several hundred pounds.

“All I know is, it was ugly and it pooped,” one eyewitness told the Philadelphia paper.

The pig, which spent the flight in the first row of first class, went ape when the aircraft taxied into Seattle, according to the report.

It reportedly ran loose through the aircraft, squealing loudly, and even tried to enter the cockpit.

“Many people on board the aircraft were quite upset that there was a large uncontrollable pig on board, especially those in the first-class cabin,” the incident report stated.

The pig made it off the plane but continued to squeal in the Seattle airport.

“Once the pig was off aircraft, another passenger had to push while the two women pulled to get it in the elevator. The whole time, the pig was squealing so loudly everyone in the terminal heard it,” according to the report.

Sea-Tac spokesman Bob Parker said he was aware that a pig had arrived at the airport, but as far as he knew, it did not cause any uproar.

“As outlandish as the Philadelphia Daily News story sounds, there was an incident,” Parker said, adding that most of the action appears to have taken place aboard the plane. “To my knowledge, it (the pig) did not create an incident at our airport.”

~ SattlePI

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Deciding to turn over a new leaf in the new year could do more harm than good, a mental health charity has warned.

Mind has urged people not to feel they must start 2009 armed with resolutions for self-improvement.

The charity said resolutions which focus on issues such as the need to lose weight or job worries create a negative self-image.

And if the plans fail to materialise, that could trigger feelings of failure and inadequacy, the charity said.

Mind chief executive Paul Farmer said focussing on problems or insecurities can lead to feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem and even mild depression.

~ BBC News

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Happy new year!

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