Ping list
“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.”
Success is the best revenge.
“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – ANDREW CARNEGIE
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The weather remains fine and the beaches in Benidorm are packed solid. It’s really hot and it saps your energy. The series ‘Benidorm’ was being filmed as we were walking along Poniente yesterday and there was an awful lot of hanging about being done! Eventually, we left them to it! Let’s get the forecast…..
| Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday |
 39° C | 26° C
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31° C | 22° C
|
 30° C | 21° C
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29° C | 21° C
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32° C | 21° C
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I like watching the Hotel Inspector on Channel Five. Week after week we see great properties owned by Hooray Henrys who haven’t got a clue about how to promote their business. Usually they have a poor concept of Customer Service and a great ignorance of everyday business life. These days I can afford to watch and chuckle to myself. In the past these people would have driven me mad. Where on earth have these people come from? Where have they lived before becoming so inept and absolutely devoid of commonsense. How many of these uppercrust twits have not got a website to promote themselves? Even down to not having an online booking facility………twits!
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The Irish Fortune Teller
During a recent shopping outing in Ireland with her sisters, Agnes
O’Brien sneaked off to visit a fortune teller of some local repute. In a dark and hazy room, peering into a crystal ball, the Mystic delivered grave news.
“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt:
Prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year”.
Visibly shaken, Agnes stared at the woman’s lined face,
then at the crystal, then down at her hands.
She took a few deep breaths to compose herself.
She simply had to know. She met the fortune teller’s gaze,
steadied her voice and asked her question.
“Will I be acquitted?”
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When broadcast television was first invented in the first half of the 20th century, it was quickly heralded as a technological breakthrough that would inspire, educate and uplift human civilization. Educational programs and useful knowledge could be cheaply and efficiently broadcast to people everywhere, it was thought. The FCC even required television stations to run news programming without commercials as a trade-off for being granted broadcast space in the electromagnetic spectrum. This TV news, it was thought, was the broadcast station’s obligation to the betterment of society. Full Story
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The UK Home Office has revealed a redesigned British passport in an attempt to cut international fraud.
To be issued from October this year, the pages of the new passport will depict well-known UK scenes, including the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula, and Ben Nevis.
Security has also been significantly upgraded, according to the chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, Sarah Rapson, who said the new design would allow the UK to “stay ahead” of fraudsters.
She added: “Through its combination of physical and electronic security features, the UK passport remains one of the most secure and trusted documents in the world, meeting rigorous international standards.”
Enhanced Security
New design features will see the chip which stores the passport holder’s details removed from view, making it harder to replace the chip without damage to the passport cover being spotted.
A secondary image of the passport holder will also be printed onto the observations page, while a new transparent covering – which includes several holograms to protect the holder’s personal details – will also be included.
To bring the UK in line with much of the rest of the world, the personal details section will be moved from the back of the passport to the second page.
The new passport will replace the current UK ePassport, which came out in 2006.
In a telephone interview a Home Office spokesperson confirmed there were “no plans” to increase the cost of a British passport following the launch of the new design.
An adult ten-year 32-page passport presently costs £77.50.
UK Passports
The first passport was a one-page document folded into eight, with a cardboard cover.
Since then, there have been 15 different passports issued.
via Breaking Travel News.
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Word of the Day
el clavo klah’-voh (noun)
nail; pin (for bones); piton (in mountain climbing); clove (spice); rip-off
EXAMPLES
Metí un clavo en la pared para colgar el cuadro. – I put a nail in the wall to hang the painting on.
Me encantan tus adornos navideños de naranjas con clavos. – I love your orange and clove Christmas ornaments.
IDIOMS
Agarrarse a un clavo ardiendo – To clutch at straws
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As NaturalNews has reported over the past several years, researchers have found that berries are loaded with health-protective properties. For example, these super foods appear to fight cancer, heart disease, infections and more. Now, for the first time, there’s remarkable evidence that people who eat blueberries, strawberries, and acai berries may protect their brains from the effects of aging, too. Full Story
Events
660 – The books of John Milton were burned in London due to his attacks on King Charles II.
1858 – The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by “The New York Sun” newspaper. The story was about the peace demands of England and France being met by China.
1889 – Boxer Jack Dempsey was defeated for the first time of his career by George LaBlanche.
1938 – Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt a poetry recital by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.
1939 – Nazi Germany demanded the Polish corridor and Danzig.
1945 – American troops landed in Japan after the surrender of the Japanese government at the end of World War II.
1962 – Mariner 2 was launched by the United States. In December of the same year the spacecraft flew past Venus. It was the first space probe to reach the vicinity of another planet.
1972 – North Vietnam’s major port at Haiphong saw the first bombings from U.S. warplanes.
1979 – Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed in a boat explosion off the coast of Ireland. The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility.
1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
1985 – The Space Shuttle Discovery left for a seven-day mission in which three satellites were launched and another was repaired and redeployed.
1991 – The Soviet republic of Moldavia declared its independence.
1992 – Federal troops were ordered to Florida for emergency relief due to Hurricane Andrew.
1996 – California Governor Pete Wilson signed an order that would halt state benefits to illegal immigrants.
1998 – In New York city, Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-’Owhali appeared in a U.S. Federal Court to face charges of bombing attacks at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was one of two suspects released to the U.S. by Kenya.
1999 – The final crew of the Russian space station Mir departed the station to return to Earth. Russia was forced to abandon Mir for financial reasons.
2001 – The U.S. military announced that an Air Force RQ-1B “Predator” aircraft was lost over Iraq. It was reported Music Stuff that the unmanned aircraft “may have crashed or been shot down.”
2001 – Work began on the future site of a World War II memorial on the U.S. capital’s historic national Mall. The site is between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
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Music Stuff August 28th
1961, Joe Dowell US No.1 – ‘Wooden Heart’.
1961, Tamla Records released the Marvelettes first single, ‘Please Mr. Postman’.
1965, The Beach Boys ‘California Girls’ US No.3 -UK No.26
1965, The Rolling Stones announced that Allen Klein, who they had met three days earlier, would co-manage the group along with Andrew Long Oldham.
1966, nearing the end of their final tour of America, The Beatles performed one show at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California, before a crowd of 45,000.
1967, The Kinks, Dave, Dee, Beaky, Mick and Tich, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown all appeared at the Hastings Stadium Festival Of Music in Hastings, England. Tickets 10 shillings
1968, Simon and Garfunkel UK No.1 album with ‘Bookends’.
1968, The Beach Boys UK No1 – ‘Do It Again’,
1968, working at Trident Studios, London, The Beatles started recording a new John Lennon song ‘Dear Prudence’. They built the song instrument by instrument, utilizing the 8-track equipment at Trident. John and George played guitars, while Paul plays drums to compensate for Ringo, who had quit The Beatles on August 22.
1972, Alice Cooper was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘School’s Out’.
1981, Producer Guy Stevens died at the age of 38 years old, having overdosed on prescription drugs he was taking to reduce his alcohol dependency. Worked with Mott The Hoople, Free and The Clash. He was the president of the Chuck Berry Appreciation Society and it was Stevens who brought Berry to the UK for his first tour. He gave Procol Harum and Mott the Hoople their distinctive names.
1988, Kylie Minogue set a new UK record when her debut album ‘Kylie’ became the biggest selling album by a female artist in Britain with sales of almost two million.
1993, Billy Joel started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘River Of Dreams.’ Joel claimed most of the music came to him in his sleep, hence the title.
1993, German-based multi-national dance act Culture Beat No.1 in the UK singles chart with ‘Mr Vain’.
1996, Issac Hayes, who co-wrote the Sam and Dave’s classic ‘Soul Man’, sent a protest letter to presidential candidate Bob Dole, requesting Dole to stop using his song, which supporters had changed to ‘I’m A Dole Man.’
1997, Gina G was taken ill during a flight from London to Glasgow when she suffered an allergic reaction to a flu treatment and had to be rushed to hospital.
1998, Geri Halliwell announced that she was selling off her Spice Girls clothes in a charity auction.
2005, Art Garfunkel was charged by police for possession after a marijuana cigarette was allegedly found in the ashtray of his car.
2005, Oasis went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’
2009, Noel Gallagher quit Oasis, saying he could no longer work with his brother Liam. Noel, the group’s lead guitarist and chief songwriter, had recently been involved in a series of rows with front man Liam, and admitted he and his brother rarely spoke, did not travel together and only saw each other on stage. The guitarist said: “It’s with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight.
Birthday Boys and Girls August 28th
1939, Clem Cattini, drums, The Tornadoes
1943, Ann Lantree, The Honeycombs
1943, David Soul, actor, singer
1946, Ken Andrews, Middle Of The Road,
1949, Hugh Cornwell, guitar, vocals, The Stranglers
1949, Martin Lamble drums, Fairport Convention, (1969 UK No.21 single ‘Si Tu Dois Partir’). Killed on 14th May 1969 when the bands van crashed on the way home from a gig in Birmingham, England.
1951, Wayne Osmond, Vocals, The Osmonds
1961, Kim Appleby, singer, Mel and Kim
1965, Shania Twain, Canadian singer, (Eilleen Regina Edwards)
1969, Mary McCartney, a daughter to Paul and Linda McCartney Mary was named after Paul’s mother (who he mentioned in the song ‘Let It Be’).
