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BBC: Red sea urchin 'almost immortal'
The red sea urchin found in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean is one of the Earth's longest-living animals.
Two quibbles:
On this date in 1963:
On this date in 1990, Thatcher the Milk Snatcher resigned as UK prime minister.
…And on this date in 2003, those talentless whinging Poms made the Wallabies look like a bunch of Sheilas.
But of course, being English, we won't be unbearably smug about it. We won't spend the next four years reminding the Aussies how we beat them in the last minute of extra time in front of their home crowd to replace them as World Champions. We won't go on and on about it every time we bump into one of our antipodean cousins. No, we will act like gentlemen—just as they would, had the result been reversed.
Yeah, right… In yer face, Kylie!
BBC: Wind farm plan dropped
Plans for six wind turbines in West Norfolk have been scrapped after protests from wildlife conservation groups and villagers.
Whoo-hoo! Get this: the company that wanted to build them is called Ecotricity. As they insist of calling these things wind farms, shouldn't they call themselves Agro-tricity? Or does that sound too much like the far more apt name for them: Atrocity?
BBC: Arrest warrant for singer Jackson
Police in California have issued an arrest warrant for Michael Jackson, Santa Barbara police department said.
Apparently, they're looking for a moonwalking black man with white skin, a flat, pointed nose and chubby, razor-edged cheeks. He is believed to be accompanied by a chimpanzee.
…And, in a spookily unrelated story:
BBC: Potato disease to cost £400,000 (14-Nov-03)
An outbreak of the world's most damaging potato disease in mid Wales is going to cost the farm involved £400,000… The whole crop will then be destroyed at a cost to farmer John Morgan and his family of £400,000. It will then be buried or sent to a landfill site.
Aren't spuds supposed to be buried?
"Hello, Carolyn."
"Oh, what is it now?!"
Bloody charming.
BBC: 'The whisky critics are wrong' (17-Nov-03)
When worldwide drinks company Diageo changed the composition of the famous Cardhu malt, a storm raged in the whisky world. The firm's rivals said the industry's reputation was being damaged because the 12-year-old single malt was now being made from a mixture of vatted malts from several distilleries while still being sold under its original name.
In the name of everything that is holy, Diageo, Cardhon't!
BBC: Climate 'killed' Alaskan horse (13-Nov-03)
[…] Researchers found the horses shrank in size before their extinction 12,500 years ago, which fits with the theory that they did not have enough to eat.
They must have been on the same diet as Sydney.
One I missed at the time:
CNN: Palace: Charles claims 'ludicrous' (07-Nov-03)
…Fawcett, 40, was the "indispensable" royal aide said to have regularly squeezed the Prince of Wales's toothpaste.