Monday 25thMay, winner "Marky"

Wind turbine noise suspected of killing 400 goats

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Late-night noise from spinning wind turbines on an outlying island of Taiwan may have killed 400 goats over the past three years by depriving them of sleep, an agricultural inspection official said on Thursday.

After the eight turbines were installed in the notoriously windy Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait, a neighbouring farmer reported that his goats had started dying, Council of Agriculture inspection official Lu Ming-tseng said.

"If noise at night can keep people awake, then it could also keep the goats awake, and when the wind kicks up it makes a louder noise," Lu said.

Agricultural authorities would make tests to rule out any other causes of death, Lu said, adding that if the giant power-generating turbines proved to be at fault, Taiwan Power had promised to compensate the farmer.

Mark 4points
Jimmy 3points
Luke 2points
Beck 1point

Monday 18th May, winner "Jimmy Hopkins"

Daniel Joyce of Stockton whose car alarm went off along with some of his neighbours' for no apparent reason

THE truth is out there!

Or at least a group of baffled drivers hope it is following a morning of motoring mystery in Stockton.

Residents on Leam Lane, Bishopsgarth, woke last Wednesday to find their cars' electrical systems behaving oddly.

And confused driver Daniel Joyce contacted the Gazette in the hope we would get to the bottom of the problem. "It was early in the morning and a lot of people were having problems starting their cars," said Daniel, 21, who drives a Citroen Saxo.

"The central locking wouldn't work on mine so I opened it manually but then the engine wouldn't start.

"I ended up pushing it around the corner and as soon as I got it away from the street it would work."

The puzzling problem is believed to have been caused by some form of radio, electric or satellite signal interfering or blocking the signal that some car keys send to the engine.

Each key emits different frequencies, explaining why cars on the street were affected in different ways.

Daniel added: "It's a bit of a strange one but it's cost people money for tow trucks and if it's going to happen regularly it could be a problem."

Other drivers on the street were also affected, including Bernard Dambrosil, whose Land Rover alarm began wailing at about 6am.

He said: "I opened the car door and the alarm went off. Then I couldn't start the car so I had to call a tow van. It's been checked over but there's nothing wrong with it."

Neighbour Geoff Saysell says his Hyundai Accent was also affected by the puzzling problem.

The 53-year-old said: "The central locking on my car wouldn't work so I had to open the door manually. The alarm went off so I had to get under the bonnet and physically disconnect it. I work at Wilton and when I got there the locking worked fine."

And it wasn't just cars which were affected. Val Nixon had problems when she tried to open up her newsagent's. Val told the Gazette: "The remote wouldn't work for my shutters - they wouldn't go up or down.

"I had to call out an engineer and I'm expecting a bill of up to about £300. I didn't know about the car problems until two days later."

Some believe the problem could be connected to a change in satellites at the University Hospital of North Tees. But NHS Trust spokeswoman Claire Young denied they were the cause.

She said: "It sounds like a mystery. Obviously we need to be careful with these things ourselves because we have a lot of sensitive equipment."


Jimmy: 4points
Mark: 3points
Matty: 2points
Chris: 1point

Wednesday 11th May, winner "Jimmy Hopkins"

Freaks Survive Because They Are Strange


If a blue jay sees a normal-looking salamander, it will eat it. But if the same bird sees a freak, it may let it go.

University of Tennessee researcher Benjamin Fitzpatrick says this discovery, which his team reports in the open access journal BMC Ecology, suggests why rare traits persist in a population.

Predators detect common forms of prey more easily, the scientists figure. The majority that share a common look are always on the dinner menu, while oddballs are left to reproduce.

"Maintenance of variation is a classic paradox in evolution because both selection and drift tend to remove variation from populations," Fitzpatrick explained today. "If one form has an advantage, such as being harder to spot, it should replace all others. Likewise, random drift [genetic change that occurs by chance] alone will eventually result in loss of all but one form when there are no fitness differences. There must therefore be some advantage that allows unusual traits to persist."

The researchers placed a selection of food-bearing model salamanders into a field for six days, with striped models outnumbering the unstriped by nine to one, or vice versa. On test days, the numbers were evened out. In each case, Blue Jays were more likely to attack the models that had been most prevalent over the previous six-day period.

"We believe that the different color forms represent different ways of blending in on the forest floor," Fitzpatrick said. "Looking for something cryptic takes both concentration and practice. Predators concentrating on finding striped salamanders might not notice unstriped ones."

4points Jimmy Hopkins
3points Willy Weageman
2points Peter Tamblynesque
1point Luke Hansell

Monday 4th May, winner "Peter Tamblyn"

Man pays $1k for freak 'kiwi fruit'

By New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie

Posted Tue May 5, 2009 10:11am AEST
Updated Tue May 5, 2009 10:55am AEST
TV still of a Kiwi-shaped Feijoa fruit

Choice: The Kiwi-shaped feijoa

* Video: Kiwi-shaped fruit fetches $784 (ABC News)

A New Zealand man has paid $NZ1,000 for a piece of fruit shaped like the country's national symbol, a kiwi.

Auckland mum Shavon Green found the freak-of-nature feijoa in her backyard.

"There were a couple of legitimate, regular feijoas and then there was this little fella that looked just like a kiwi," she said.

Her son was going to take the fruit in for show and tell, but then the Green family decided to put it up for auction on the internet.

A Christchurch businessman bid $NZ1,000 ($780) on the condition that half of the money go to charity.

Ms Green is now keeping her eyes peeled for more odd-shaped pieces.

"Someone said to me I better check my pear tree - I might find a partridge," she said.

The businessman plans to preserve the feijoa.

Monday 27th March, winner "Pommy James"

Baby killed in air crash just minutes after birth

A baby, born in mid-air in a medical helicopter, died minutes later when the aircraft crashed into Corsican mountains, killing its mother, a doctor and two pilots.

President Nicolas Sarkozy today expressed his "deep distress" at the unexplained accident, which happened near Bastia in northern Corsica on Saturday night.

The civil defence helicopter was sent to a clinic in the small town of Ponte-Leccia after a 20 years old woman went into emergency labour. She was taken on a 15 minute flight to hospital in Bastia but the machine crashed into a 500 metre high ridge of the Lancone mountains in mist and high winds.

Rescue workers who located the crash site in the early hours found the bodies of the mother, a 43 years old female accident and emergency doctor and the pilots, aged 56 and 42. They also discovered the remains of the newborn baby.

No distress message was sent by the helicopter and no message to say that the baby had been born in flight.

"Both the pilots were experienced and had worked in Corsica for several years and were used to this kind of flight," said Hervé Bouchaert, the prefect in upper Corsica. He added that the weather was "appalling".

A statement by President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of his "great distress" and "very great sadness" that a medical flight had ended so tragically. An investigation is under way.


And I ask myself, did Peter have anything to do with this accident Monday? Or was Matty Pease at the controls of this disaster?

Monday 20th April, winner "Marky"

Steve Irwin's ghost allegedly spotted at Batt Reef.

Pino Termini of Naples in the south of Italy has spent more hours underwater than most. Having dived for the Italian Navy for seven years he now spends much of his time traveling the globe in search of the ultimate diving experience. None of this prepared him for what he claims to have seen during his last expedition. Last month he arrived at Port Douglas in tropical North Queensland for his eighth time, The Great Barrier Reef being one of his favorite playgrounds. He had heard that Batt Reef was worth a plunge into the deep blue. He chartered a boat from Port Douglas and made his way out to the area he planned to explore.

'As I started my dive I saw somebody and was surprised because I saw no other boats around, then I noticed that the person had no oxygen tank or mask, the person swam towards me and I realised that it was none other than the crocodile hunter himself: Steve Irwin. I freaked out, but he looked calm and at peace'

'I have seen a lot underwater but never a ghost. It was as if he was looking after the spot where he met his end, I felt that I should not impose myself on his turf as it was his and it seemed as if he was caring for the living creatures there.' Termini said of his traumatic diving experience.


As Winter approaches, we see the cold pay homage to a man by the name of Marky.

I'm a little crook so I'll just post the results up this week.






Winner, Marky!






















Mark: 4points
Peter:3points
Luke: 2points
Ben: 1point

Notable Absentees: Beck & Chef Pease

Monday 13th April, winner "Pommy James" & "Marky"

The Monday night, April Easter Long weekend double-header!

Two games were played last night, with raining PISSING DOWN ACROSS SE Qld!

Poker has reached new heights, everyone has lifted their game. With our new points table everyone wants a piece of the action. No longer is it not acceptable to not only come last but not reaching the top 4 points bubble is fucking painful.

In our first game, we watched as Marky squandered an enviable lead to be the first out for the evening double-header. The chef was not happy and retired to the lounge room for football and big TV's. We then saw a 4 way all-in with Jimmy Hopkins the man to fall 2nd from poker grace.

I was out next calling all-in with my 2pair to Willy's already on the board fucking straight...........

First into the points table was Beck falling to Pete, gaining herself 1 point.

Next to go was Willy who went down to Pommy, gaining himself a 2 pointer.



Heads-up came down to Peter and Pommy. I'm sure I was eating a hamburger at this stage, so I can't be sure what happened, I just know that Pommy took the 4 points.




Pommy 4points
Peter 3points
Willy 2points
Beck 1points




Game number two was an aggressive number, with the BBQ making belly's full, fuckers were ready to play some hard-ass poker.

Speaking of aggressive, Willy was 1st to leave the table.........Aggressively. Mark took Willy down laughing all the way to the bank. With nothing to cook, Willy pondered why his AFL dreamteam was falling apart at the seams so early in the season.

Pete was second to go in the second game, unfortunately no one remembers who came second, last. ;)

At this stage, Pommy was textbookly on fire! Unfortunately for Pommy he was pulled out of the game by Becks hands of fortune, to leave the table in 5th.

Mark seemed to be the quiet little achiever over the next few hands taking out Jimmy for 1point in the bubble, he then took out myself for 2points then heads-up came down to Beckster and Mark. The second time Beck has been in this situation in about a month but couldn't quite pull-off the win this time.




Thanks Marky for the COOK OFF!

Mark 4points
Beck 3points
Luke 2points
Jimmy 1point

Notable absentee's were Benny Hall and Matty "I'm Studying" Pease.