Spanish logic - now you have it !

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a
little longer, you could have got yourself a better model.

The women won !!!!!!

Make the most of your cell phone

5 THINGS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW YOUR MOBILE PHONE COULD DO

There are quite a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.
Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out what you can do with it:

FIRST
Emergency
The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112.

If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you. This number 112 can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND
Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This information may come in handy someday. If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, just call someone at home and ask them to get your spare key and their mobile phone. Then hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at home press the unlock button on the spare key, holding it near their mobile phone. Your car will unlock and saves someone from having to drive your keys to you.

Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away but if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' key or your car, you can unlock the doors (or the boot/trunk).

Postcript: It works well! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!'

THIRD
Hidden Battery Power
Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To reactivate, press the keys *3370# and y our mobile will restart with this reserve and will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you next recharge your mobile.

FOURTH
How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. If your phone is stolen you can telephone your service provider by landline and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use it or sell it either! If everybody did this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

FIFTH
ATM - PIN Number Reversal - Good to Know
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN # in reverse . For example, if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM system recognizes that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested but, unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location.

This information was recently broadcast on CTV by Crime Stoppers however it is seldom used because people just don't know about it.

POSTSCRIPT May 20th, 2010.
My thanks to a blogger called Charlie who notified me that Item 5 above is totally false. Please read the story as verified by SNOPES by copying this link into your browser: http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/pinalert.asp

Police Force Collaboration Beckons As Finances Squeezed

It has become a common theme across Police Forces throughout the UK – the mantra of having to save money and provide more in an increasingly difficult economic environment.

Despite the promises to put more officers on the streets in the manifestos of the three main political parties, the reality is that money available to Chief Constables is already tight and the situation will become tougher in the years ahead. With the realisation that savings are needed, senior officers are already resorting to more draconian measures in a move to balance the books.

With the Treasury’s edict to increase efficiency gains from 3 to 4 per cent, there are now concerns that cash savings alone will not be enough to address police budget shortfalls. The gravity of the problem was outlined by Andy Hayman, a former Assistant Commissioner with the Met, when he told a conference in London that fundamental structures may need to be reconsidered.

“New initiatives such as neighbourhood policing have brought considerable benefits,” he maintained. “But continually extending the boundaries of policing is not sustainable if Forces are to deliver on the interdiction of crime, be it antisocial behaviour, organised crime or acts of terrorism.

“Chief Constables, struggling to address the deluge of performance indicators from central Government, need to re-think policing structures and reform, or else face having it done for them by a future Home Secretary.”

For one group of Forces in the North of England, however, an evolving formal collaboration arrangement involving both the constabularies and the Police Authorities is providing a possible example for how both working practices can be made more efficient and cash could be saved in the years to come.

Ironically, however, the Policing Yorkshire and the Humber initiative – which involves the North, West and South Yorkshire Forces as well as Humberside Constabulary – had its roots in firmly in controversial proposals made by the last Labour Government to merge the Forces six years ago.

Although the plans were shelved in 2006, the quartet of Forces recognised that they had identified areas where they could share resources. Forming a Regional Chief Constables Group from all four Forces and a Joint Police Authority Committee, they have been pressing ahead with their own initiative.

A Regional Programme Team is managing joint projects and a Regional Protective Services Improvement Plan sets out the stall for the coming three years. The document looks at areas where the Forces could work together such as homicide and witness protection and a mobilisation plan to test fast time response.

Moves to look at how other processes can formally be regionalised are also being investigated. Among them is a procurement plan and a joint custody project with an agreed model of prisoner handling across all four Forces. Investigating the viability of each of the ideas is split between the constabulary quartet, while the Joint Police Authority Committee have called in external consultancy firm Deloittes to scrutinise future proposals.

Co-ordinating the project is Head of Collaboration DCC Mark Whyman, a liaison point for those involved in the scheme, who admits a huge sense of enthusiasm for the project.

“I think there were a number of reasons why those involved took the view that they needed to continue to explore a formal system of working collaboratively,” he said. “The Chief Constables all knew each others’ areas and there was recognition that you are stronger if you work together. Ultimately, why do you want to do things four times over if you can do them once?”

“Having said that, however, the journey is still in progress – the project team has changed in shape and membership as we have progressed and the harmonisation of policies and procedures is going to take time. But my appointment in itself is evidence of the investment those involved are prepared to make.”

Recent successes of collaboration between the Forces have included the seizing of £6 million worth of criminal assets by the Roads Policing Team targeting cross-border criminals with 650 arrests made in the process.
Meanwhile in the hunt for missing Claudia Lawrence and the Cau Guan Chen murder investigation, West Yorkshire’s Underwater Search Unit and Humberside’s air support officers provided assistance along with detectives from across the region.

With the four Forces training together, officers have also been honing common tactics, which proved useful during the Operation Nix action – policing a series of demonstrations at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Killingholme.

Although the original aims of the collaborative working were operational rather than financial, Whyman admitted that the structures would help with cost savings needed amid the pressures created by the hole in public finances.

“We are currently reviewing everything that we do closely, and trying to second guess how we think a newly-elected Government is likely to act,” Whyman PoliceOracle.com. “In making savings the challenge that all of us are facing is to make them in such a way that they don’t disrupt services.”

But the collaboration project has the potential to provide a firm base to help reduce costs. Jeremy Holderness, Chief Executive of North Yorkshire Police Authority, is convinced that formal sharing of resources will be a feature of policing in future, and that it will be accelerated the economic outlook.

“Finances were never the prime driver for any of us in the project, but in the last two-and-a-half years we have seen the reality that public expenditure will be cut in the medium to long-term,” he said. “Not only do we need to work collaboratively, but we must focus on economies of scale and efficiency.

“There is work to be done still to achieve the long-term objectives that we have. The first two or three years of the process are all about each Force making themselves fit for purpose to work together. Starting from four different positions would be an impediment to collaboration rather than a driver.”

Whatever the aspirations of the Government and the Prime Minister who will prepare for power tomorrow morning, the future challenges facing the Police Service will not take long to overshadow the celebrations. The morning after the night before for newly elected politicians promises to be a sobering experience; deciding the way forward for public services must be swift.

Formal collaboration, and potentially mergers, offers a possible way forward for constabularies, but the processes faced by the Yorkshire and the Humber show that the integration of different procedures and methodologies does take time and effort to achieve. And ultimately, any merger or collaboration must still be achieved against the pressures of operations

Article courtesy of www.PoliceOracle.com

I bet you didn't know this little fact about the brain of man !!!!

A little known fact....

The first testicular guard "Cup" was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.

That means it took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important !!

My thanks to my friend Dean Eddy in California for this little gem. Dean's web site:
http://community-1.webtv.net/dapcs5/httpcommunitywebtv/

World War II tank recovered after 62 years

WW II Russian tank with German markings uncovered after 62 years. WW II Buffs will find this interesting. Even after 62 years (and a little tinkering), they were able to fire up the diesel engine!

A Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer pulled the abandoned tank from its tomb under the boggy bank of a lake near Johvi, Estonia. The Soviet-built T34/76A tank had been resting at the bottom of the lake for 56 years. According to its specifications, it's a 27-ton machine with a top speed of 53km/hr.

From February to September 1944, heavy battles were fought in the narrow, 50 km-wide, Narva front in the northeastern part of Estonia. Over 100,000 men were killed and 300,000 men were wounded there.

During battles in the summer of 1944, the tank was captured from the Soviet army and used by the German army. (This is the reason that there are German markings painted on the tank's exterior.) On 19th September, 1944, German troops began an organized retreat along the Narva front. It is suspected that the tank was then purposefully driven into the lake to conceal it when its captors left the area.

At that time, a local boy walking by the lake, Kurtna Matasjarv, noticed tank tracks leading into the lake but not coming out anywhere. For two months he saw air bubbles emerging from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armoured vehicle at the lake's bottom. A few years ago, he told the story to the leader of the local war history club 'Otsing'. Together with other club members, Mr. Igor Shedunov initiated diving expeditions to the bottom of the lake about a year ago. At the depth of 7 metres they discovered the tank resting under a 3 metre layer of peat.

Enthusiasts from the club, under Mr Shedunov's leadership, decided to pull the tank out. In September of 2000 they turned to Mr. Aleksander Borovkovthe, manager of the Narva open pit company AS Eesti Polevkivi, to rent the company's Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer. (Currently used at the pit, the Komatsu dozer was manufactured in 1995, and has recorded 19,000 operating hours without major repairs.)

The pulling operation began at 09:00 and was concluded at 15:00, with several technical breaks. The weight of the tank, combined with the travel incline, made for a pulling operation that required significant muscle. The D375A-2 handled the operation with power and style. The weight of the fully-armed tank was around 30 tons, so the active force required to retrieve it was similar. A main requirement for the 68-ton dozer was to have enough weight to prevent slippage while moving up the hill.

After the tank surfaced, it turned out to be a "trophy tank" that had been captured by the German army in the course of the battle at Sinimaed (Blue Hills) about six weeks before it was sunk in the lake. Altogether, 116 shells were found on board. Remarkably, the tank was in good condition, with NO RUST, and all systems (except the engine) in working condition. This is a very rare machine, especially considering that it fought both on the Russian and the German sides. Plans are underway to fully restore the tank. It will be displayed at a war history museum in the Gorodenko village on the left bank of the River Narv.

What is worn under a man's kilt ?

Warning; finish your coffee and biscuits before looking at these pictures because otherwise you may choke! I hope they make you smile or blush with embarrassment! I have often been told to take pictures you receive on the Internet with a pinch of salt as they may have been air-brushed or doctored in some other way. I will leave you to make up your own mind about these!

Politicians "Face Tough Choices on Policing"

Professional bodies warn that custodian of Number 10 keys must square up to difficult decisions on law enforcement issues…...

Tough choices will need to be made about crucial policing issues –whoever holds the keys to Number 10 Downing Street next month, it has been claimed.

In a statement after Gordon Brown announced that he would go to the country on May 6, the Police Federation said any PM would have to balance the demands of financial pressures while dealing with home affairs concerns.

Brown admitted that the election announcement had been “the worst kept secret in recent years” when – at 1100hrs on Tuesday (April 6) – he revealed he was going to the country.

All three parties have already discussed the broad direction in which they would take the police, should they take power, both in and out of Parliament.

Among the policies, Labour has said it will ring fence the Community Policing budget, ensuring there is cash for Police Community Support Officers for 2010-11.

The Tories are planning to introduce directly elected police chiefs which, the party claims, would improve accountability and cut down on bureaucracy.

The Liberal Democrats have maintained that chief officers should have greater discretion to manage their force in deciding key staff changes and rewarding specialists.

But a spokesman for the Police Federation said: “From our point of view we recognise that there are a number of issues in the police that need to be faced – whoever finds themselves in power in a month or so.

“We understand that the economic climate is not good and the Prime Minister will have to maximise investment in each of the public services.”

The spokesman believed that the “workforce mix” in the police would need to be examined to see how PCs and PCSOs could be deployed for best effect.

He also called for better collaboration between Forces to be explored where viable, Police IT to be better organised and a more “joined up criminal justice system”.

Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, believed that a more radical approach was required to meet the needs of difficult times.

The senior officer and former Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, again called for a top-down review of the whole law enforcement system, which, he stressed, had not been done for nearly five decades.

He said: “We would like to see a review of all areas of policing including the number of forces, national structures which pull things together in times of emergency and the manner in which the police are held to account.

“Police chiefs make hard choices on how to carve up their resources from anti-social behaviour at one end of the spectrum through to combating the threat from international terrorism at the other. It is now time to review the structures which govern our role in this increasingly complex landscape.”

However the Association of Police Authorities did not believe that an overhaul of policing was needed – and stressed that politicians needed to keep priorities in perspective.

APA Chairman Rob Garnham said: “Police authorities have the power, on behalf of local communities, to ensure that policing continues to improve. We do not need an expensive and time consuming review to look at how to do this.

“Policing is at an immensely important stage – we are already seeing a significant drive to improve public confidence in the Service, which is beginning to grow steadily and we are in the run up to the Olympics,” he added.

Article courtesy of www.policeoracle.com