New Articles on The Daily Dust today

9 Things for Brits To Know About Thanksgiving

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 08:16 AM CST

Today is Thanksgiving in the USA, we wanted to unravel a few facts for those not in the know..

Thanksgiving is not celebrated by us Brits but the World’s most powerful nation stops work and eats on the fourth Thursday in November each year, we thought we’d unravel a few facts about Thanksgiving Day.

1. The first Thanksgiving celebration can be traced back to the Plymouth Pilgrims in the fall of 1621.

2. The Mayflower launched from Plymouth with 102 passengers, 46 of which died during the first winter.

3. Thanksgiving was started by English Separatists arriving on the ship the Mayflower.

4. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the 2nd Monday of October in Canada.

5. The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.

6. 45 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving.

7. Over 306 million Kilos (675m pounds) of turkey are eaten each Thanksgiving in the United States.

8. Only male turkeys gobble. Females make a clicking noise.

9. The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day.

Sounds like Christmas to us..!

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Britney Spears Set for UK Tour Dates

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 12:40 AM CST

Britney Spears has confirmed that she will play two concerts in ~~the UK~~ London at the O2 arena in London. The dates will be the only European shows on her forthcoming world tour.

Rob Hallett of tour promoter AEG said, "”We’re creating a musical circus. Expect to see jugglers, dancers, tattooed ladies and acrobats."

Tickets go on sale on December the 5th and Hallett said they are likely to be Britney's only tour dates in Europe for the "foreseeable future”.

This week Britney is also to appear on the X-factor.

image credit: Melissa;;

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Alcohol Duty Reduced To Keep Whisky Drinkers Happy

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 12:30 AM CST

Alcohol duty revisited to stop Whisky drinkers being punished by the Budget.

Much has been made by some bloggers of Chancellor Alistair Darling’s move to alter the Alcohol Duty on spirits that was announced in the small print of the Pre-Budget Report on Monday. The theory, to offset the savings made by VAT by increasing the cost of the duty, didn’t quite work out in practice..

Because alcohol is taxed by alcoholic content, and not the price of the bottle, certain spirits were loosing out, and the Scottish Whisky industry was quick to point out the damage that this unbalancing would bring… some 29p per bottle.

Never let it be said that this Edinburgh MP doesn’t know what his constituents like - an amendment was published on Wednesday to correct the imbalance and keep the Scots happy.

Hix.

Teacher Found Guilty of Spending Too Much Time on Facebook

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 12:20 AM CST

A primary school teacher was found guilty of misconduct by the General Teaching Council for Wales after it was revealed that she would spend hours a day on social networking sites like Facebook, Friends Reunited along with buying and selling goods on Ebay.

Sian Mediana, 40, resigned from her position and denied that she used the internet excessively. However, two teaching assistants told the hearing in Cardiff that Miss Mediana was often seen “trawling the internet”.

Mrs Mediana was given a three-year conditional registration order by the panel and must notify the headteacher of any school she works at about the order.
Delivering the panel’s verdict, Mr Williams said “Pupils’ progress may have been seriously affected.”

Image credit: pshab

“Gripping His Ears, Tugging At The Locks,” That’s Bad Sex

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 12:20 AM CST

Rachel Johnson’s Shire Hell wins ‘worst sex scene in an excellent novel’ prize.

Congratulations go to Times columnist (and sister of London Mayor Boris Johnson) Rachel Johnson for winning this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Shire Hell, the follow-up to Notting Hell, picked up the prize for a passage in a novel which is most gratuitous, and not really required because the rest of the novel is ‘jolly good.’

And yes, we here at The Daily Dust have that passage:

I find myself gripping his ears and tugging at the locks curling over them, beside myself, and a strange animal noise escapes from me as the mounting, Wagnerian crescendo overtakes me. I really do hope at this point that all the Spodders are, as requested, attending the meeting about slug clearance…

Now in it’s 15th year, the Bad Sex in Fiction judges also awarded a Lifetime Achievement award to John Updike who has managed four consecutive nominations.

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Things That Cost 1 Trillon Pounds

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 12:10 AM CST

So the UK national debt will be over a trillion pounds? What’s that worth?

Congratulations to blogger ‘Old Holborn,’ who’s collated some ideas to give scale to the size of One… Trillion… Pounds… the estimated UK National Debt over the next few years:

If there were enough £1 coins available; you’d need a colossal 10 million tonnes of them. Which is the approximate weight of 32 of the World’s largest Supertankers.

How about if on the day that Queen Victoria died you dragged £25 million Pounds in used notes off into the woods and burnt them; and then repeated the exercise EVERY day since? You’d still be two years short of destroying a Trillion Pounds.

If it were turned into £20 notes you’d need 2000 Securicor vans to move it.

There’s more over on Old Holborn’s Blog.

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Australia Discover the Delights of Captain Slow

Posted: 27 Nov 2008 12:00 AM CST

60 Minutes down under profile the UK Top Gear team.

On their round the world tour with Top Gear Live, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May were profiled by Australian magazine show 60 minutes, with lots of chat about the new Top Gear show (and a blink and you’ll miss it mention of the William Woollard years), the fun, the cocking about and the danger.

Worth a watch for fans and opponents alike.

(Top Gear, BBC2, Sundays at 8pm).

Apple iPhone Ad Banned by Advertising Standards Watchdog

Posted: 26 Nov 2008 11:50 PM CST

An advert for the Apple iPhone has been banned by the advertising standards watchdog for exaggerating the phone’s speed.

The ad showed a page loading an internet page in under a second. The advertising standards watchdog upheld complaints by 17 people that the ad misled them about the phone's speed.

The ASA has now said that the ad will not appear again on television in the same form as it could appear to viewers as though the phone operated at those speeds.

The watchdog concluded: “Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”

Looks like another point to add to our iphone fails page.

Kilroy is First Out of I’m A Celeb

Posted: 26 Nov 2008 04:08 PM CST

Breaking: Robert Kilroy-Silk first out of I’m a celeb

The first celeb was voted out and Robert Kilroy-Silk was the one to take the honour.

Up against ex-Police Chief Brian Paddick, it was close but only one could go..

We said before it started that Kilroy would go after two days..we were wrong, but he was first, as we kind of predicted..

Who should have gone? Let us know below..

Two to follow on Thursday

Posted: 26 Nov 2008 01:04 PM CST

A good afternoon's racing ahead on Thursday with Newbury staging an informative card.

Several events will be worth watching with a view to the future, especially the Worcester Novices' Chase where The Tother One (2.05) can land this for trainer Paul Nicholls, who has won this four times since 1997.

A smart hurdler last year, The Tother One made an impressive introduction to the chasing game when beating one of today's rivals, Gone To Lunch, over one length at Exeter last month. Considering that was his first outing since April, improvement is likely today.

The next bet of the day comes at Uttoxeter where Comhla Ri Coig (1.20) is expected to go off a decent price.

Trainer Donald McCain Junior – son of Ginger who trained Red Rum – has made a bright start to his career and knows how to place his horses and looks to have found the right opportunity for this lightly raced sort. After a promising sixth in a bumper – national hunt flat race - this gelding stepped up to be an encouraging third over 2m6f at Kelso a few weeks back. He stayed on nicely that day, giving the impression today's three miles will suit and rates a cracking each-way bet today.

Have a free £100 bet on Totesport

Read more from David on his blog http://www.racingtrendsrevealed.blogspot.com/

If anyone is interested in a historic guide to this season’s major jumps races, then his latest book “Racing Trends Revealed Jumps 2009″ is available at High Stakes website.

Alternatively, there is a competition running on the guardian website all this week to win a copy of it.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/horseracing (talking horses) for further details.