Smooth Blog

“An American woman has been named the luckiest lottery winner in the world after scooping her fourth multi million pound jackpot.

Joan Ginther won £6.2m with the top prize from a scratch card bought from a store in Texas, pushing her total winnings to more than £14m. Her first multi million payout came in 1993 when she won £8m from a £20 scratch card. Mrs Ginther chose to take £180,000 a year for 19 years after paying tax on her win to give her a total prize of £3.6m. In 2006 she won a further £1.4m and again opted for a lump-sum payment of £1m after paying tax on the winnings. Two years later the 63 year-old who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, scooped a further £2m.

Incredibly, three of the tickets were bought from the same small convenience store in the town of Bishop, Texas. Friends said Mrs Ginther would return to her home town to visit her father and would drop in at the local store to buy a scratch card. Store manager Bob Solis said they sell 1,000 lottery tickets a day, adding: “This is a very lucky store.”

Experts said the chances of winning four lottery jackpots was more than 200 million to one. “This final bit of winning lottery must confirm Mrs Ginther as the world’s luckiest lottery player,” said a spokesman for World Lottery News. “We would be interested to see just how much she spends on lottery tickets and scratch-offs.””

Read more at The Telegraph

“Mobile phone footage has captured the moment that several UFO’s were spotted flying above Reading, Berkshire. The video was captured by Lizzie Zuowen Tang and Jo Mingjiao Xue who claim to have seen 21 flying objects between 4.45 and 5.53 in the morning.

Ms Tang said: “Their shapes were like rods which pointed in the direction they were flying, but they were rotating at the same time when flying forward. “They flew very slowly without the noise which planes generate when flying, so at first we thought they were meteors, but then we immediately realised that they were definitely not meteors because their speed was much slower. “We think that they were flying at a very high altitude and we saw two of them generate a very strong light flash for a few seconds when they were flying.””

Being a skeptical lot we don’t beleive in UFO’s but are open to convincing evidence. This hardly counts as some as it’s so poor but it’s hard to make out what they actually are. Certainly not conventional aircraft of any sort – but maybe our readers have an idea?

Head over the The Telegraph to watch the video

Sorry to all of my chinese friends but I have to show this.

Of course people viewing this should never generalise, this is only in random areas and its not applicable all over China.

Notice- No stop signs, no traffic lights, no rules and only occasional use of headlights – even at night!

Although most applicable to the garages made in the USA, here is a video that shows you how to break into a garage.

I guess the garage door makers must rethink their security plans/ideas.

A British DJ was sentenced to four years in prison by a Dubai court this week after tests revealed traces of cannabis in his blood. Sure, it’s not exactly legal at home, but FOUR years?!

Of course he’s not the first Brit to wind up behind bars or deported because they’re not clued up about the strict United Arab Emirates laws.

According to the Foreign Office, 1.1 million Britons visited the UAE last year and 294 of them were arrested or detained by police – making it more likely to happen there than in any other country in the world.

So if getting banged up abroad is on your ‘to do’ list of life experiences, here are some easy ways to break the law in Dubai…

Do some dirty dancing
Ever thought your dance moves ought to be illegal? Then head to Dubai, where they just very well might be. Unless you’re at a licensed club or in the privacy of your hotel room then dancing is considered indecent and provocative and could get you arrested. During Ramadan you won’t even find a dancefloor to throw some shapes on risk-free – dancing, loud music and live music are forbidden during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, so nightclubs usually close and all the bands go on holiday.

Give someone the finger
Back home it’s just a bit rude but making insulting gestures in Dubai is regarded as obscene and totally unacceptable – as 56-year-old Brit Simon Andrew discovered in March this year when he was accused of showing an aviation student his middle finger during a row and was arrested. He denies flipping the bird but has had his passport confiscated while awaiting trial. It has been known for offenders to get a 6-month sentence for such an act and some have been deported.

Have sex on the beach
For a surefire way to wind up behind bars, break a couple of laws at once. Because of their strict laws about indecency, public sex is beyond unacceptable and do it with someone you’re not married to – a crime that entails prosecution, imprisonment and/or a fine and deportation – and you’re firing on all cylinders. Michelle Palmer, 36, of Oakham, Rutland, and Vince Acors, 34, of Bromley, SE London, did just that last year and were banged up for three months before being deported, as well as fined 1,000 dirhams (about £180).

Snog in a restaurant
Don’t assume you have to go all the way to infringe on their decency regulations – the law extends to kissing and even holding hands, unless you’re married. British marketing executive Ayman Najafi and Charlotte Adams – both in their 20s – were arrested and accused of public indecency after an Emirati woman claimed they exchanged a passionate kiss in a restaurant. They were given a one-month jail sentence for public indecency and illegal drinking, fined 1,000 dirhams, then deported. The pair maintain it was merely a peck on the cheek.

Drink Sex on the Beach
If you thought we were talking about the vodka-based cocktail before, that could work too. Buying drinks in licensed hotels or bars is allowed but drinking – or being drunk – is illegal in public. You’ll stand out particularly well in the resort of Sharjah where booze is banned full stop, apart from for residents with a licence to drink at home. It is also an offence in the UAE to drink and drive, no matter how tiny the amount. If you’re arrested on alcohol-related offences you’ll likely be jailed while you await trial and penalties entail hefty jail sentences and large fines.

Smoke some wacky baccy
Drugs are almost always a law breaker, but Dubai is about as far from Amsterdam as you can get. Possession and consumption is treated very seriously in the UAE and – as the British DJ who had no drugs on him recently discovered – possession includes anything in your system, so even if you have a cheeky joint before you get on the Dubai-bound plane and you could end up falling foul of their regulations, and wind up with their mandatory minimum of four years in jail.

Other laws you should know about
Shopping in shorts could attract attention from the authorities – unless you’re on the beach or by the pool, then anything tight, transparent, short or displaying your stomach, shoulders or back if you’re a woman, is considered indecent. Same if you’re a man in shorts or displaying a bare chest. Photography of certain government buildings is also illegal, as is perusing any form of pornographic material. If all else fails, smuggle in a bacon sandwich – pork is banned – and a poppy seed roll will add to the criminality of the action, as poppy seeds are also on the UAE’s forbidden list.

For more travel information on UAE, visit the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website

“This may not seem surprising to most of us, but it has puzzled neuroscientists for decades. Given that the brain is the most powerful computing device known, how can it perform so well even though the behaviour of its circuits is variable?

A long-standing hypothesis is that the brain’s circuitry actually is reliable – and the apparently high variability is because your brain is engaged in many tasks simultaneously, which affect each other.

It is this hypothesis that the researchers at UCL tested directly. The team – a collaboration between experimentalists at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and a theorist, Peter Latham, at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit – took inspiration from the celebrated butterfly effect – from the fact that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil could set off a tornado in Texas. Their idea was to introduce a small perturbation into the brain, the neural equivalent of butterfly wings, and ask what would happen to the activity in the circuit. Would the perturbation grow and have a knock-on effect, thus affecting the rest of the brain, or immediately die out?

It turned out to have a huge knock-on effect. The perturbation was a single extra ‘spike’, or nerve impulse, introduced to a single neuron in the brain of a rat. That single extra spike caused about thirty new extra spikes in nearby neurons in the brain, most of which caused another thirty extra spikes, and so on. This may not seem like much, given that the brain produces millions of spikes every second. However, the researchers estimated that eventually, that one extra spike affected millions of neurons in the brain.”

Read more at PhysOrg.com

An  armed robbers have just robbed the bank at barclays in Ashford Middlesex, even though I have never been a big fan of armed robberies I must admit that the guy that went ahead with the plan must have big ba**s, the bank is located in the high street and next to a police station.

A helicopter has been screening the area since the afternoon from around 3pm.

Update:

• There were 12 hostages initially.

• The robber released 11 hostages (I belive this is to take control of the situation). [3 members of staff have been released]

• It is believed that the current hostage is a member of staff from the local estate agency. [probably Lockwood]

• The robber has just sprayed the windows black to cover himself from prying eyes.

• One of the hostages that has been released has been arrested immediately – probably to get interviewed/questioning.

• There is a possibility of two armed robbers but not yet confirmed.

• Confirmed – The police are having trouble accessing the inside CCTV systems, more than likely they got blacked out as well or cut, either way it looks like the police doesnt have a good team of system specialists.

• The situation is quite calm right now, people on Sky mention they are quite scared but this is just a typical act they put while speaking to the media, but I can confirm there is nothing to worry about, its quite silent here.

• BBC London News arrived (very late though).
• News reports mention that the robber has been arrested, but to be honest no one in here has seen this, so stay tunned just in case.
• It is now confirmed that the robber has been arrested.

News from BBC London:

A man in his 30s has been been arrested after staff and customers were held hostage in a bank in Surrey.

Police said officers and the force helicopter were called to the scene at Barclays Bank in Church Road, Ashford, shortly before 1600 BST.

Hostage negotiators made contact with the man, who came out of the bank just after 1900 BST.

No-one was seriously injured, but medical teams were at the scene.

Witnesses said a man who came out of the bank had a gun “put in his face” by police.

Church Road and Fordbridge Road were closed as a precaution during the incident and police said they would remain at the scene for some time gathering evidence.

A witness at the scene said up to 16 hostages were released from the bank earlier and came out with their hands tied behind their backs.

“Presumably they had been tied up by the raider,” said Neil Wood, owner of Ashford Glass, situated about 150 yards from the bank.

Mr Wood said the man was believed to have had a sawn-off shotgun.

Witnesses said hostages, some wearing police forensic suits, left the bank in groups – one included three women who were crying.

Others said the gunman sprayed the bank windows with paint to stop people from seeing inside.

A Surrey Police spokeswoman said a number of people were inside the bank at the time the gunman entered.

Following the arrest, Supt Duncan Greenhalgh said it had been a fast-moving incident.

Police were on the scene within minutes of receiving the first reports of a man with a gun entering the bank.

“This was obviously a very traumatic experience for those members of the public and bank staff caught up in it,” said Mr Greenhalgh.

“I am extremely pleased with the quick and effective response from officers who brought this situation to a close without injury to anyone, including the suspect.”

Shafiul Alam, 26, a waiter in nearby Indian restaurant Peppers, said: “I was around there this afternoon and there was a lot of police activity.

“It is a very quiet bank, with not many staff in it.

“Ashford is a quiet place compared to other towns around here such as Staines and Feltham.”

Tim Kiy, Barclays corporate affairs director, said: “We are immensely relieved and happy that all those involved are now safe and able to be reunited with their families.

“Our focus now is the wellbeing of those involved, who will be provided with all the support and counselling they need.

“We would like to thank the Surrey Police for their role in the swift and successful outcome.”

The referee of England’s 4-1 defeat to Germany has a chequered history and missed the 2002 World Cup after he was banned in his homeland for irregularities.

Jorge Larrionda who, along with assistant Mauricio Espinosa, missed a clear goal by Frank Lampard that would have made it 2-2 in the second-round tie, was suspended in his native Uruguay for six months for “irregularities”, leading FIFA to exclude him from their list for the 2002 finals in Japan and South Korea.

After the latest blunder, Larrionda and his assistants were given police protection after the match in Bloemfontein due to fears for their safety.

England were angered after Lampard’s 38th-minute shot was not deemed a goal despite good positioning for both the referee and his assistant – the ball hit the underside of the crossbar and clearly bounced a yard behind Germany keeper Manuel Neuer’s line.

A spokesman for the South African Police Service said officers would ensure no member of the public would be able to get close to Larrionda and assistants Espinosa and Pablo Fandino.

Spokesman Vishnu Naidoo said: “The officials will be protected by a team of elite close protection officers. Nobody will be allowed to get anywhere near them.

“The level of security around them remains unchanged from previous matches but the officers will be briefed to be on special alert for any trouble.

“Obviously after there could be a degree of discontent among some fans but the safety of the officials will be ensured.”

Larrionda, 42, has also been in hot water after he failed to spot a clear goal by Brazil in a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Colombia: in an almost identical situation to Lampard’s, Adriano’s header rebounded off the crossbar, crossed the goal line but was not given.

At this World Cup Larrionda had earlier been the target of Serbian criticism for failing to award a late penalty when Nemanja Vidic’s header appeared to strike Australia’s Tim Cahill on the arm in their final Group D game – a win would have sent the Serbs through.

Eurosport

It’s alleged Scientology has avoided paying tax in the United Kingdom by claiming it is run out of South Australia. In Britain, the Church of Scientology is supposed to pay tax on the millions of pounds it brings in each year. Now, the organisation has been accused of claiming its entire UK operation is part of its Australian outfit.

The Independent Senator Nick Xenophon is one of South Australia’s favourite sons. He championed the former members of Scientology who spoke out about the abuse inflicted on them. This latest intrigue surprised even him.

“When you look at the fact that the three directors are based in the UK, that returns haven’t been filed for the South Australian entity in over 30 years you’ve got to ask what on earth is going on,” Xenophon said.

Full article at TodayTonight

If you’ve just renewed your home contents insurance, did you check that everything was included? Although you may think that your high-tech gadgets are covered, upgrading your laptop without upgrading your insurance cover may leave precious items off your inventory in the event of a claim. So what should you consider if you’re a gadget geek but still want to make sure you’re covered?

Continue reading “High-Tech Insurance For Your Gadgets”