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206 days ago
Belfast Zoo’s much-loved white tiger, Jack, has died. He was 17. Jack came to Belfast on 23 April 1998 from Colchester Zoo and arrived with Jill, the zoo’s other tiger. They shared an enclosure for nine years until Jill died of kidney failure in 2007. Over the past few weeks, Jack’s health had been monitored by Belfast Zoo vet, Michael Griffith, who took the decision to put him to sleep. “In tiger years, Jack lived a long life, but suffered a rapid deterioration in health over the past few weeks," he said. "He became less active, suffered rapid weight loss, and developed a tumour on his throat which had significantly grown in size.” Because he was a hybrid sub-species, Jack was not part of a breeding programme. But, despite this, he remained very popular with visitors to the zoo who often knew him by name. Julie Mansell, curator, said: “Jack was a firm favourite with public and staff and will be sorely missed. Some of our visitors may remember Jack because of his ...210 days ago
Today I received a letter in the post from Axa Direct, offering me a car insurance as low as £229. That is of course a great price for a car insurance, and would be worth considering. However, this letter has made me decide to never ever in the rest of my life get an insurance from Axa Direct. The reason why? I don't own a car, I have never owned a car and I will never own a car, so those £229 would be an insane prize to pay for insurance. I don't know where Axa got my details from, and why they think I would be interested in a car insurance, but I am happy to share this information with the rest of the world. On the other hand, it does make me think, they offer someone who has no car a car insurance, would that also mean that if I take the insurance that I get paid when no car has damage after an accident or no car is stolen? In that case it might be an interesting insurance after all and that is a way I would really consider getting my "no car" insured. Maybe I ...
211 days ago
Of course it is always nice to receive positive feedback about the work you are doing from your manager. Today I received great feedback from the client, which I am very proud of. This is what it said: ....I also like to request of you to convey my personal feedback of two of the member from GEM, S... M...... and Pascal Stil on their commitment in QM through calibration. Especially to Pascal, who have been an outstanding Quality management agent with wonderful eyes in attention to detail..... Maybe some people think it is showing off that I publish this here, however I think achieving feedback like this is a reason to be proud and in my opinion there is nothing wrong with showing what makes me proud in my job.
238 days ago
Two weeks after the conviction of the Austrian father who enslaved and raped his daughter, two similar cases have emerged. Barbie Nadeau reports on the crimes of incest that are on the rise. Two international incest cases—one in Turin, Italy, and another in Honda, Colombia—have emerged since Josef Fritzl of Austria was convicted of murder, incest, and slavery two weeks ago. The three similarly horrifying cases beg the question: How many more Josef Fritzls are out there? In Colombia, widower Arcebio Alvarez, 59 years old, was jailed over the weekend for allegedly abusing his daughter, Alba Nidia Alvarez, 35, since she was just nine years old. He fathered 14 children with her, eight of whom survived. The youngest child is one. The children were all born at home and the circumstances around the deaths of five children remain a mystery. Authorities in Colombia say that Alvarez lived with the victim and their children on a ranch near the village of Honda until nine months ago when Alba ...
270 days ago
The Simon community is running a fundraising event this Friday in which they send a number of local business leaders and celebrities to jail. The aim is to raise money for their work with homeless individuals and families throughout Northern Ireland. The bulk of this money will be raised by the ‘inmates’ using mobile phones from their cells to raise ‘bail’. This seems like a very original idea and because of this a nice way to raise money for this charity, that helps the homeless. Originally the Simon Community was set up in London in 1963 by Anton Wallich-Clifford. In his work with offenders and those on probation, Anton saw many people re-offending because they had nowhere to stay. In setting up the first Simon Community in his own home, he aimed to draw public attention to the needs of homeless people and to develop an experimental approach to their care and support. This shows a bit that they have a history with (ex)prisoners and this kind of fundraising event would fit them ...
