Funny/Freaky news

[Sandeep Warrier]

Finally some news worth reading about!!!!!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...han-water-in-Kiwiland/articleshow/6757967.cms
Booze now cheaper than water in Kiwiland!

WELLINGTON: You may as well drink alcohol, and not water anymore -as a new study suggests that booze is the cheapest drink available in New Zealand - even more than water.

The research conducted by Otago University found that alcohol has become increasingly affordable within the span of last 10 years.

The Government said that the findings are concerning, and the researchers are using their report to highlight the health and social cost of alcohol misuse - and to push for an increase in the tax on liquor.

"Our analysis suggests alcohol is now probably the cheapest recreational drug in New Zealand and has become increasingly affordable, at the same time as concern about the binge-drinking culture has grown," the New Zealand Herald quoted Nick Wilson, author of the study, as saying.

He and co-author Dr Fiona Gunasekara found discounted cask wine could cost as little as 62c for a standard drink, discounted beer 64 c, discounted bottled wine 65c and spirits 78c. That compared to 67c for a 250ml glass of bottled water and 43c for a glass of milk.

Heavily advertised alcohol discounts, such as in supermarkets, exacerbated the problem.

The researchers said the Government was shooting itself in the foot by spending ever-increasing amounts of money on alcohol-related health and crime problems.

Alcohol Action Group spokesman Professor Doug Sellman, from the National Addiction Centre, said the new study made the issue clear-cut.

"No one can say you're talking it up. Lower prices equal harm. Increasing prices was the easiest and most effective way to curb problem drinking," Sellman said.
​

 

[Sandeep Warrier]

Some people seriously have nothing worthwhile to do!!!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...mistic-or-pessimistic/articleshow/6741959.cms
Dogs can be optimistic or pessimistic?

If your dog destroys the furniture when you are away, it could be a pessimist, researchers have concluded.

A study has found that some dogs are natural gloom-mongers while others have sunnier dispositions.

"We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively," said Professor Mike Mendl, an author of the study and head of animal welfare and behaviour at Bristol University.

"What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs."

To measure canine psychology, researchers trained dogs to recognize that bowls on one side of a room contained food, while bowls on the other side were empty. They then placed the bowls in "neutral" locations between the two sides.

Just as happy people tend to see the positive in any situation, so optimistic dogs sprinted toward the bowl, expecting to find food, while pessimistic dogs hesitated or ran more slowly.

The study, published in Current Biology, which looked at 24 dogs at two UK animal centres, found that dogs' temperaments correlated with their behaviour when separated from their owners.

Dogs that saw the bowl as half-full were calmer when left alone, sure their owners would return, while pessimistic dogs were more likely to worry, bark and misbehave.

About half of the 10 million dogs in the United Kingdom show "separation-related behaviour" at some point, Mendl said.

Instead of getting rid of anxious dogs or ignoring them, owners should recognize that their dogs may have emotional issues and seek treatment for them, he said.
​

 

[Lewiy]

I wouldn't get too excited about the alcohol....it's more dangerous than heroin according to a recent study in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11660210

 

[xld]

Some people seriously have nothing worthwhile to do!!!

You are so right! Pot ... kettle ... black.

 

[Sandeep Warrier]

I wouldn't get too excited about the alcohol....it's more dangerous than heroin according to a recent study in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11660210

That compared to some studies that say alcohol in moderation is in fact good for health.

I guess the keyword here being moderation

 

[Andrew Fergus]

I didn't see this post until now - too busy chugging back the cheap alcohol instead of water.......

I'm not sure I would want to drink the wine that costs 65c per standard drink. I actually want to keep my stomach lining and tooth enamel for a few more years...

But seriously, in this fantastic country I don't know why people buy bottled water!! There are no issues with the quality of the tap water. At my previous house the tap water came from a natural spring within the suburb.

I also don't understand how the more heavily processed drink (e.g. beer which is primarily water) is cheaper than water! It must be the marketing costs and mark-ups.

Same goes for the price of milk. I don't understand how petrol per litre can be cheaper than milk. I wouldn't normally drink petrol based on the price relative to milk or for my calcium requirements, but there is something seriously wrong there.

One is renewed daily and the other is scarce resource. Admittedly the milk must be pasteurised but the petrol must be refined. I don't buy into the cost of distribution argument - both are liquids with similar weights that go through a collection, processing and distribution process. While petrol is carried and stored in bulk at the point of retail, the safety costs would surely outweigh the cost of handling pallets of milk and the stacking of shelves. Unless I'm missing something really obvious, it doesn't make sense to me.

Cheers!

 

[Sandeep Warrier]

Same goes for the price of milk. I don't understand how petrol per litre can be cheaper than milk. I wouldn't normally drink petrol based on the price relative to milk or for my calcium requirements, but there is something seriously wrong there.

I wish it were like that here.... the price of petrol keeps on increasing!!!!

I agree about the booze.... I wondered whether the 65c ones were of regular quality or not....

BTW... did you see the 1st test match? Haven't seen a match swing like that in quite a while!


Another one....

It's so easily to fool people. It's as if people are just waiting to be taken advantage of.....

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ugabe-for-a-ride/story-e6frg6so-1225932996603

3 years' jail for diesel diviner who took Robert Mugabe for a ride


IT was a miracle hailed by the authorities as a solution to Zimbabwe's problems.

Nomatter Tagarira, a spirit medium, had apparently been blessed with the power to conjure diesel from a rock - providing fuel for a country suffering dire shortages.


Unable to contain their excitement, President Robert Mugabe's officials invested in Tagarira's extraordinary abilities, lavishing her with a $2.7 million cash gift. It was more than a year before they realised they had been fooled.


On Wednesday, Tagarira was sentenced to 39 months in jail for defrauding the government and supplying "false information to the state", according to court documents. "Many people became gullible," magistrate Ignatius Mugova told the court.


"The state channelled immense resources toward the diesel project."


What Tagarira, 35, neglected to mention after revealing her supernatural abilities in 2007 was that she had earlier filled an old fuel bowser with diesel, attached a length of pipe, and hidden it. Then she let it be known to local functionaries of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party that ancestral spirits had given her the gift of spiriting diesel from a rock 96km north of Harare.


Mugabe dispatched a taskforce to investigate what was already being talked about as a source of fuel for the nation. The ministers of State Security and Defence watched as Tagarira struck the rock - the signal for a hidden assistant to open the tap from the bowser - and a fountain of diesel gushed out.


The ministers, accompanied by the deputy commissioner of police and an array of military commanders, removed their shoes, sat on the bare ground and clapped in unison. They returned to report to Mugabe that the nation's fuel problems could be at an end. Sentencing her, Mr Mugova said Tagarira had lied to the government and the people. "Her trickery brought despondency in the nation," he said.


At one point, ministers supplied a 50-vehicle convoy for her on a 465km trip for night-time rituals to consolidate the "project", he said. She was flown about in air force helicopters. As well as the cash gift, she was given a farm seized from its white owner, cattle and large quantities of food. A permanent armed guard was stationed around the rock.


The ruse came to light after Mugabe, not entirely convinced, sent a second taskforce. This time, it reported she had "failed to prove the existence of fuel".


Tagarira immediately absconded. She was caught, and escaped but was recaptured after nearly three years on the run.


Even after her first arrest, some remained convinced of her supernatural abilities. At her first court appearance, she went into a trance, growling apparently possessed - causing several spectators to flee the room.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

BTW... did you see the 1st test match? Haven't seen a match swing like that in quite a while!

All I can say is wow! What a match.....very surprising.

 

[snowblizz]

But seriously, in this fantastic country I don't know why people buy bottled water!! There are no issues with the quality of the tap water. At my previous house the tap water came from a natural spring within the suburb.

Same reason they do it everywhere else with similar circumstances. Expensive water has to be better than that cheap thing which has been running through god knows what kinds of pipe from some suspicious looking lake. Probably had hobbits bathing their feet in it before it got to you as well. Or in other words, marketing. That the water ran in someone else's equally tainted pipes before being put in the bottle and shipped half the world around (in many cases) doesn't seem to bother anyone.

For a time my mom would buy carbonated water and let the carbon escape as she didn't like the bubbles. Luckily sanity eventually prevailed and she now keeps tap water in a bottle in the fridge instead.

I also don't understand how the more heavily processed drink (e.g. beer which is primarily water) is cheaper than water! It must be the marketing costs and mark-ups.

Of course it's all the mark-ups, but tap water IS heavily processed. Bottled water too. Probably comes from the same factory. Bottled water has to be one of the most heinous scams I've ever came across though.

Same goes for the price of milk. I don't understand how petrol per litre can be cheaper than milk. I wouldn't normally drink petrol based on the price relative to milk or for my calcium requirements, but there is something seriously wrong there.

One is renewed daily and the other is scarce resource. Admittedly the milk must be pasteurised but the petrol must be refined. I don't buy into the cost of distribution argument - both are liquids with similar weights that go through a collection, processing and distribution process. While petrol is carried and stored in bulk at the point of retail, the safety costs would surely outweigh the cost of handling pallets of milk and the stacking of shelves. Unless I'm missing something really obvious, it doesn't make sense to me.

I don't think there is a simple answer, but to start with most agriculture is (heavily) subsidized. We collectively pay for the cheapness of milk in ways we can't immediately see on the price tag in the store. And that price is at least to 80% marks ups after the milk came from the cow in the farm. Ie the farmer doesn't get it. On the other hand oil is heavily taxed, so in neither case the price the consumer seems is very distorted.

Unlike milk oil can be transported vast distances, stored almost indefinitely at low cost etc etc. It also has a much greater economy of scale I think. I can't speak for NZ, but here, which I guess is rather similar, milk comes from lots of small(ish) farms that are pooled together at the "milk refinery" . Can't for the life of me remember what it's called in English. If I read the numbers correctly we use 4 times as much oil as we do milk.
And of course it seems a renewable source is more expensive to use than finite one.
Oil you can tap as much as you can get in one go, cows have a daily limit.

 

[WaterGypsy]

the "milk refinery" . Can't for the life of me remember what it's called in English. .

I think the word you are looking for is dairy or sometimes it is called a creamery .... but hey I woudln't even know where to start in Finn(ish) so don't knock yourself