The investment arm of Aviva (the UK's second largest insurance company) accidentally fired all 1300 of its employees by e-mail, when they meant to let just one of them go. It was retracted almost immediately, with a follow-up e-mail apologizing for the mistake ( Read more... )

A man in Lincolnshire, England was recently fined for defecating on a dead hedgehog in public. He was slapped with a £100 fine, as well as £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge. That last bit is the part that has me scratching my head - isn't the victim here the hedgehog? They don't have a lot of use for money at the best of times, but even less ( Read more... )

New allegations from the WikiLeaks material have been published by the Telegraph, including that the United States traded British nuclear information to the Russians to get them to sign a treaty.

Does the American administration want to piss off the Brits, or is this just a happy side-effect of their so-called foreign policy?

There's a proposal over in England to heat the local swimming pool using the excess heat from the local crematorium.

The facility's cremators dispatch the departed into the hereafter at 800°C, the Telegraph notes, and that heat is lost to the heavens ( Read more... )

Administrators at Worthington Hospital, in England, have decreed that tests ordered by doctors will not be performed if the doctor doesn't write "Please" on the form.

A fifth of Britons apparently think that haggis lives wild in the hills. Another 15% think it's maybe some sort of musical instrument, and 4% are sure it's a character in the Harry Potter books. Um, no, that's Hagrid, but thanks for playing. Probably more telling is the fact that 14% of Scots polled also had no clue about their own cuisine ( Read more... )

Police in Wiltshire, England have issued a public warning after an European eagle owl (picture a metre-high owl, with a 2-metre wingspan) escaped its enclosure. The bird is a "top predator" and might decide a cat or small dog looks edible. Mark Avery, director of conservation for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, is quoted in part as ( Read more... )

According to an article on the Psychology Today website, the British papers basically feel free to make stuff up at will. Not just the tabloids, mind you, but the "respectable" papers as well. As opposed to the US press, right? :-P (Wanted to link to some faked US press stories here, but I'm too lazy. They exist.)

Recently, British researchers declared that the Gräfenberg Spot (AKA G-spot) "may be a figment of women's imagination, encouraged by magazines and sex therapists".

French researchers, on the other hand, are saying "of course there is one, it's not our fault if you can't find it!" (Or words to that effect.)

Personally, I'm with the French on this